The Meeting of the Minds
by VecchioLouise
Summary: Crossover between The X Files and Stargate SG1, Mulder finally learning the truth about his aliens, and Sam Carter finally learning the truth about Jack O'Neill. My first ever attempt, so if it's rubbish, you'll have to tell me and I'll bin it. You'll find that the SG1 characters are more familiar to me than Mulder and Scully, please forgive me for this.
1. Chapter 1

The meeting of the minds.

Fan fic piece, crossover between The X Files (a few series ago) and Stargate SG1 (current and last ever series), Mulder finally learning the truth about his aliens, and Sam Carter finally learning the truth about Jack O'Neill. My first ever attempt, so if it's rubbish, you'll have to tell me and I'll bin it. You'll find that the SG1 characters are more familiar to me than Mulder and Scully, for this you'll have to excuse me.

_The scene is set in Mulder's office, him looking over photo enlargements and Scully having just arrived to work._

Agent Dana Scully had entered the office, without Agent Fox Mulder hearing, he was obviously engrossed in whatever this new project was, as usual, and was intently studying whatever it was that was on the desk in front of him. "Don't you ever take a break?" Scully said with a sigh, making Mulder jump, as she looked over to her partner who had his head buried in his latest project, the latest part of the big conspiracy to hide the truth about aliens from the public… she already knew the answer to her question.

"Not unless I'm sleeping, Scully, you know that," Mulder replied, thinking that his partner should have known after so many years of working together that this was as important to him as life itself. He knew that one day he would eventually find out the truth, the truth about alien life, the truth about his sister, the truth that was out there.

Mulder had stumbled upon 'The X Files' accidentally, a pile of unsolved mysteries stored in the basement of the bureau, nobody wanting to waste their time on them as conventional explanations seemed to be a little shortcoming to explain what had happened. Most of the case descriptions seemed to come straight from comic books, and the majority of agents had just laughed at the prospect of solving them. Mulder, on the other hand who had always loved a challenge, had a degree in criminal psychology that he had obtained from a university in England, where the education standards were a lot higher than in America, and had relished the thought of explaining the paranormal.

Having had a life long interest in the unexplained ever since the disappearance of his sister when he was 12 years old, he had searched for weeks; making posters and knocking on the community's doors to see if anybody had seen or heard anything that might give him some clue as to what had happened to his little sister. Although he had often teased her, he had loved her intensely and missed her so much he cried himself to sleep every night. His mother had been distraught; his father had tried to remain strong for the family. Someday, Mulder hoped to find her.

Mulder had asked his superiors about 'The X Files' and whilst they were trying not to laugh the common thought amongst the group was that they didn't really have anything else for Mulder to do, and they really did need to try and solve old cases, and so the office in the basement became Mulder's new office and he was sent down there out of sight and out of mind, to investigate the cases that had lain there for so long. Perhaps the new technologies of the 80s could help in the pursuit of the explanations that the agents of the 60s and 70s had been severely lacking.

"What is it you're looking at anyway?" she asked, trying to sound interested, already feeling she had heard enough.

"Just some photos I was sent through the post." He replied.

"Who from?" she asked, expecting that it would be from one of his equally alien obsessed friends.

"I don't know, there was no return address. Whoever it was must not want to be known, or not want anything to do with whatever it might lead to," he said with a hint of disappointment and a matching look on his face.

"Or maybe they just forgot to put their name on it," she said, being her usual sceptic self. She decided to take a different approach to find out what the photos were of. "What's in the pictures then, Mulder?" she asked, directly.

Mulder motioned to her to come and stand beside his chair where he was sitting behind his desk, head bent over the photographs, studying intently for details of possible evidence of something extra terrestrial. "I think that whoever sent them thought that I'd be interested in them because of this little group in the background. Look here, Scully, right at the back, behind that building. Doesn't that look a little odd to you?" he pointed out a group of men, dressed in silver, surrounding one in gold.

Scully looked at the photograph before her, it was a photograph of a family, a mother a father and two kids. They looked like a nice well rounded happy family, just like most families were in the world. In the background she saw the group of men Mulder was referring to, one man dressed in gold and three men surrounding him dressed in silver. "Yes, Mulder, very odd, maybe they were going to a fancy dress costume party?" she said half joking, half serious as she walked to sit across the desk from him, already feeling she'd heard enough.

"Ha ha ha," he replied, throwing another half dozen photos in her direction. "Look at this one, look at the guy in gold, look at his eyes, Scully… and don't tell me that's a version of red-eye!"

As she peered into the man's eyes, she saw them, they were gold, almost as if they were glowing. She had to admit, the photo was odd. "Ok, they're a little odd…." She trailed off as she realised that Mulder was already on the phone to one of his friends, a specialist in verifying the authenticity of photos. Scully had often wondered how Mulder had acquired so many friends in this field, all just as interested as him, if not more-so in the paranormal she was amazed at how quickly Mulder could organise phone calls and get so many different theories from people. She had often wondered if there was a group in non military high schools for this kind of thing. Being a military brat herself, she was never in a place long enough to really settle into one school, her father's work made them travel a lot. But her two brothers, and her sister seemed not to mind that much, the whole family saw it as a way of getting paid to see America. Her mother never actually unpacked all of the boxes, and Scully had wondered if she even knew what was in all of them at the end of all the moving.. But now, her father was dead, Mulder thought something to do with the paranormal, but Scully knew it was just his time. The man had led a stressful life in the Navy, it had finally caught up with him.

As she came back from her thoughts she saw Mulder was nodding into the phone, agreeing a time and a place to meet his friend. She was surprised he'd not called one of the Lone Gunmen, a trio she didn't really like all that much, who she thought were really just over grown high school nerds who were so bored that they had to think of conspiracies to debunk in order to find something to do. She was surprised he hadn't called them, but glad, she just hoped this other friend of his wasn't so nutty as them. Although she had an awful feeling that he would be. Mulder seemed only to have one type of friend, and the word 'Nerd' seemed to describe all of them in one go. She thought maybe she should introduce him to her book club, but then thought twice about it as all his suggestions would be about space, extra terrestrials and the unexplained.

"Come on, Scully, I'll buy you lunch before we go to meet Joe," he said as he picked up the photos and put them in his inside jacket pocket.

She got up obediently and asked, "Where are you taking me then?" "I know a place….." he trailed off leaving her feeling less than confident…


	2. Chapter 2

**~Chapter 2~**

_Sam Carter's office. Colonel O'Neill comes to tell her about some F.B.I agents_

Major Samantha Carter was sitting at her lap top when Colonel Jack O'Neill walked into her office and interrupted her. "Hey Sam, whatya doing?" he asked, not really interested in the actual facts, but still interested in what she was doing, as he absent mindedly picked up a book from her desk and glanced over it before putting it back down.

"Not much, not anything really, just some emails to family," she replied, wondering if she should really tell him that she was halfway through a game of solitaire.

"Hammond just called me to his office, he gave me some bad news," Jack said solemnly.

"What kind of bad news, sir?" she asked anxiously.

"The real bad kind," he said, just as anxious as she was. "The kind where we have to convince some people that there really isn't anything from another planet, here on earth."

"Why? Who knows what?"

Jack didn't reply, but moved around to her computer, to find her solitaire game, and giving her a quizzical look replied "Emails, huh? (Black Jack on red Queen)," he whispered quietly. "Well, while you're emailing, see what you can find on the net about a guy called Fox Mulder, he's an F.B.I agent, works on something called 'The X Files'. We need details about him, as many as possible, and the Pentagon can't search because they're being watched."

"Yes, sir" she replied and started straight away. Shutting down solitaire she logged onto the Internet, they had the fastest connection in the world so it didn't take long for her to get to the F.B.I homepage. After she got there she used one of the standard usernames and passwords that were available to the U.S.A.F to get into the site and she ran a search on all agents called Mulder. She came up with two results and clicked the one that said 'Mulder. F.' and started browsing the results.

Jack stood over her, watching her, waiting to see what she came up with. He'd always enjoyed watching her work, not because he liked the nature of her work, but just because he got to spend some time with her, alone, that was other than a mission. He liked their missions, Teal'c and Daniel had been good enough to give them space when they needed it, and now Jonas was picking up on the little hints that Jack was throwing his way.

Their job was an amazing thing, it was the classic science fiction piece of work, except that it wasn't science fiction, it was real. The Stargate had been found on Earth a decades ago in Egypt, and hidden by the American government. Tests had been done in the early days to see if it was of any real military advantage. When the man who had gone through it hadn't come back, they had shut it off and never wanted anything to do with it again. Dr Daniel Jackson had figured out how to work the Stargate a few years ago, and so their adventures had begun.

Jack missed Daniel, even if he had been a geek, he'd been one of the closest and most trusted friends Jack had ever had. They'd had an unspoken bond, and Jack missed him… really missed him, it was like there was a hole and it just couldn't ever be filled. He knew Jonas was trying hard to be a good member of the team, and he was a good member of the team… a real team player who took orders well, but Jack and Daniel had gone through a lot together. They knew each other inside out, they could even finish ends of sentences… they weren't just friends by the time he died, they were brothers. There were so many things that Jack had wanted to say… but never got the chance, Daniel had died, saving another world in the process, and thus left their team somewhat incomplete. Sam Carter, the scientist among them was a Major, Jack, a Colonel, as the team leader, and Teal'c, a Jaffa, had all worked well with Daniel, an archaeologist, the conscience of the group. He was sorely missed. But even after all this time Jack still missed Daniel just as much as the first day that he hadn't been able to see him.

After his death, Jack had refused all of the candidates for a replacement put forward by General Hammond, commander of the base, till finally Jonas Quinn, a man from the planet Daniel had saved was recommended by Sam, and due to a choice between him and a Russian, Jack chose Jonas. Together they went through the Stargate to make friends and explore the universe and find new technologies and swap information with the people they met on the other side.

His train of thought was interrupted when Sam spoke. "Sir, I've found his file from the F.B.I." As Jack leaned forward to look over her shoulder at the screen, she leant back in amazement. "Wow…. He's been in even more trouble with his superiors than you, sir." She said, immediately regretting it, if she was deemed over the line, she could be shot for that.

"Wow… who would've thought that was possible," Jack replied, with a smile in Sam's direction seeing her worried look out of the corner of his eye, in shock that he was actually better behaved than someone else. Jack had a history of speaking his mind, often before he'd thought about the consequences. As they read the F.B.I personnel file, they both shook their heads. "This guy sounds like a nut."

Reading through the file there was a list of dates that Mulder had been insubordinate, had disobeyed orders, had endangered the lives of his partner, and had just thrown the rule book out of the window. He wasn't a candidate for employee of the month.

"Yeah, he doesn't sound like a happy camper in relation to the government….. he hates the government, yet he works for them…. Well, I guess we all have times where we hate our bosses," Sam replied, and she smiled knowingly, thinking of past jobs before she had gone to the academy.

As soon as she'd finished her sentence, General Hammond their commanding officer, walked in. "I hope that doesn't include your present boss," he said, half joking half serious.

"No, sir," she said, smiling. Hammond was a good man, very fair, and she respected him, as did everyone else on the base. Her father and he were great friends, and she'd grown up hearing about all the funny things they used to get up to, every time her father had come home from a mission. The man seemed to have endless patience, especially with Jack, and he had a very open mind, unlike most Generals she had known. There was no way anyone on the base could hate their boss.

"What have you found on our man, Mulder?" Hammond asked. "Quite a lot, sir" replied Jack, as Sam moved out of her seat to let Hammond look at what his file had come up with. "This is as much as I've got so far, sir, but it's more than enough to come up with a preliminary conclusion about him. But give me some time, and I'll be able to hack into his emails, and his F.B.I username and see what his site history is. Bet we'll find some good stuff in there." "Carry on, Major" Hammond said, and he left them to it.


	3. Chapter 3

**~Chapter 3~**

_Mulder and Scully, sitting at a restaurant table, studying the menu._

"So, Scully, what looks good to you?" Mulder asked, knowing that she was already counting calories. Not that she needed to, she was more than thin enough, when she had first walked into his office, he had thought that she was a secretary, not an agent. Nothing against her, as she had proven him wrong time and time again, but he thought that she was too tiny to look after herself. He had often wondered if their training had given her the knowledge she had needed to overthrow a three hundred pound man, or whether it was just her determination to prove the world that size didn't matter, and that she could kick anyone's ass if she wanted to.

Mulder had been on the mat in the training rooms with her more than a few times, and knew she could hold her own, she couldn't really bench press that much, but when it came to defending herself when they had been practising situations in the training hall, he had come off worse sometimes, even when she was the criminal. Since the first time they had trained together he had vowed to work harder at keeping fit and making sure he could hold his own.

"The salad looks good, but then so does the pasta… maybe I can have both. Or a pasta salad…" she trailed off in deep contemplation. She was less concerned about lunch than she was Mulder's friend 'Joe.' She wondered why she hadn't found out his last name, this made her slightly suspicious that this wasn't someone she would invite to a party. She hoped he wasn't going to be another 'Lone Gunmen' type. Frohike, Langly and Byers were more than enough for her, she couldn't cope with another one like them, nerdy, geeky, and so paranoid it was beyond belief. They taped all their phone calls, incoming and outgoing, they bounced their Internet signal off several servers, and they never ordered pizza to their door, one of them always went to fetch it, and then drove in square circles to make sure they weren't followed, and they were the only people she knew of who had cameras outside their front door to spot on comers, although it'd prove handy for double glazing salesmen, she thought, smiling to herself.

"Wow, didn't know the thought of pasta salad made you smile," Mulder said. Looking at her since she'd trailed off, he guessed she wasn't just thinking about lunch any more. The expression on her face had turned from weariness and concern to an amusing smile, and he was wondering what was going through her head right then. He wondered if she was smiling because she had known he was watching her, or whether it was something else. He wondered if she knew about the many occasions that he had just sat there watching her, studying her face like he was never going to see it again. Mulder didn't want to lose Scully, she was a big part of his life, not just his work partner. They had become very close friends, one of Mulder's closest, and there was a little part of him that just liked to have her around because he thought she was really hot. Of course, in their job it was always a possibility that either one of them could be shot and killed on the job, or as he suspected, one of them could be taken, just like his sister. He missed his sister, when she was abducted, when that bright light had filled the room and she'd floated before his very eyes through the window, he had wanted to grab her and hold on to her so much, but he was paralysed with fear, and after she was gone he had missed her so much. His face was now solemn and sad, and Scully had noticed.

"It didn't, I was thinking of something else," she said,

"What's on your mind, Mulder, pasta salad put you off lunch?" she asked, with a smile, trying to cheer him up a little.

"No, I was just thinking, that's all," he replied, not even wanting to remember the time Scully had been taken away from him for four weeks. He had fought to get her back, he had tried every channel open to him, and he had wanted to cry so much when her mother had given up and got a gravestone with her name on it. When she had been returned to a hospital he had been grateful, but curious as to how she had got there, he had been sad when the life support machine had been switched off, but had been elated when she had returned to good health.

They placed their order as the waitress came over to their table, Scully settling for a pasta salad, and Mulder asking for a chicken salad baguette. "So, tell me about Joe" she said, trying to break the silence.

"Oh, he's a great guy, very good at his job, kinda geeky but he's cool" he replied.

'Oh, great,' she thought, rolling her eyes, 'He is another 'Lone Gunmen.' Already she disliked this man. She knew that it was always a bad idea to judge a book by it's cover, but she didn't like the sound of this 'Joe' person, he just sounded so boring.

"He's one of the country's leading authorities on photograph authenticity, he's very recognised and respected in the circles. He's ousted some of the world's greatest fakes, remember that guy who took that photo of Senator Michaels with that model woman? What was her name?…." The name was on the tip of Mulder's tongue.

"Nell Shephard?" she volunteered,

"Yeah that's her, well, it turned out it was a fake..." he was interrupted before he could go any further.

"Yeah, I know, I saw it on the news" she told him.

"Yeah, well, Joe was the guy who proved that it was a fake photograph." Mulder told her, matter-of-factly. Scully thought that he was very proud of his friend and she wondered if he had ever spoken that way about her. Then she wondered why he would ever talk about her, and who on earth he would ever talk about her to. This worried her. "So, where do you know him from then?" she asked, curious as to how Mulder knew this world renowned fake photo spotter, trying to get away from the thought of him talking about her.

"Oh, well, we met through college. We both went to Oxford. We had a couple of classes together, and we studied together, and we just kept in touch." Mulder had withheld some information, he didn't think that Scully needed to know that in college Joe had introduced or provided Mulder with some of the beginnings of his adult film collection. "That's cool, that you've kept in touch with someone from school, I mean" she replied, thinking there was more to it than that, but thought better of asking. She didn't really want to hear about any of their adventures chasing aliens or whatever. Why Mulder just couldn't have gone to frat parties and got drunk like normal kids, was beyond her.

As their lunch arrived, they fell quiet again, and began to concentrate on the task of eating. Both contemplating the upcoming meeting, Scully hoping that she'd be able to get through it without yawning, and Mulder hoping to God that Joe didn't bring up their past, and give him the video's that he'd asked for the previous night.

"Just one more thing, Scully," Mulder said, with his mouth half full, "He's in New York, so we'll have to fly up there. Our flight's in two and a half hours."

'Typical,' thought Scully, 'Now he tells me!'


	4. Chapter 4

**~Chapter 4~**

_Conference room, SGC, Sam Carter informing the rest of SG1 of her findings about Fox Mulder._

"Major, what else have you found out about our man Mulder?" Hammond asked, already having a copy of her initial findings in front of him, but not wanting to read through it.

"Well, sir, a lot." She began, standing up and moving to the front of the conference room and picking up the remote to bring up the display of Mulder's file on the big screen. "He was a pretty normal kid, till he turned 12, then his younger sister Samantha went missing. He was convinced it was aliens, as many 12 year olds would be, but not all of them would go on to make a career out of chasing them. His father was an agent too, working in very shady circles from what I can gather, there's not much on record about him, not a lot was put on computer back then. From what I gather, his work on 'The X Files' was originally just something for him to do, because the F.B.I needed someone to work on them and nobody else was really willing. His reports read for a best selling science fiction novel if they were ever released to the public. The stuff this guy comes up with, it's unbelievable. Even for us, sir, I mean, there's no way this stuff could have happened."

"What kind of stuff, Carter?" Jack asked.

"Well, sir, first of all there are notes on him about his superiors, that he probably doesn't know about or he'd just leave. They all seem to think that he's out of his mind. They basically put him down there because there wasn't much else for him to do. Get this… he claims that not only did aliens abduct his sister when he was 12, but that they abducted his F.B.I partner and impregnated her with an alien human hybrid and that the pregnancy lasted all of a month, and now she's infertile as a result of it. He claims that the government gave her cancer and that they have the cure for it, but they won't give it to him because he won't stop working on the cases he's working on, and he won't stop threatening to go public with his findings."

"So far, if he went public with his findings, he'd be laughed right off the planet! Are we sure he hasn't just been reading too many comics and being watching too much Star Wars?" asked Hammond, amazed at what he was hearing.

"Yes sir, at this point he would be laughed at, and a whole lot at that" continued Sam. " But he's got his hands on about half a dozen photos, that he describes as a group of men, dressed in silver, surrounding one in gold, and the one in gold's eyes glowed." She said, her face looking worried.

"How do we know that he himself has described this, Major Carter?" asked Teal'c, who had been silently taking in all the information till now. "Has he written it in a report?"

"No, Teal'c, his phone is tapped, The F.B.I. don't trust him, his superiors think he's mad, and so they had his phone bugged. His bosses think it's just another one of his wild theories about aliens, but one of our researchers here was lending a hand to the F.B.I, doing some private work, and was going through some of the bugging tapes and heard it and brought it to General Hammond's attention."

"It's a good job he did too, sounds like we've got a problem here, people." said Hammond.

"General, even if there was a Goa'uld on the planet" began Jack, "Would they really be in full Goa'uld gear?" he said, wondering if it wasn't giving the game away just a little.

"It is most unlikely" said Teal'c, sitting back in his chair, resting his elbows on the arms and bringing his fingers up in front of his face, fingertips touching, head tilting to one side.

"Yeah, it'd be a bit weird, not really keeping cover very well is it?" said Jonas, wanting to be helpful in the discussion. "I mean, there's no way any Goa'uld could have a massive following without us knowing about it, is there? We'd have to have seen something or let someone through for this to happen, and for once, we've not messed up." He thought of all the other times that he'd read about where the SGC had let aliens come through the Stargate unknowingly and almost destroy earth.

"Well, there was a time when there'd been a Goa'uld on the planet for about four thousand years, and we didn't know about it. Seth, was his name," Sam told Jonas, knowing she shouldn't really be mentioning the case, and how they had failed to do a background search on cults on Earth and basically screwed up, but thought that it might help Jonas to know. "He'd been here all along, having little cult, after little cult, and trying to get to the stargate. All the other system lords thought he was dead, but he was right here. It's possible that there's another that's been here for a while, and Mulder didn't say that they were wearing body armour, just that the men were in silver and the leader guy was in gold." Sam pondered her theory.

"You know, you'd think they'd change their fashion sense once in a millennium. Why can't they go with a nice blue?" He said, looking around the room and realising his joke wasn't appreciated, he got back to business. "Is it right that he's getting these photos verified today?"

"Yes, they have plans for this evening. We fly to New York in a half hour to find them by tonight, they're coming from Washington, we're coming from a lot further out, but with any luck they're not flying as early as us so hopefully we'll cut them off at the pass," Sam informed him.

"Well, people, you'd better get a move on then, make sure you have everything you need. Dismissed, SG1" Hammond ordered.

"Let's go then," Jack said, getting up, and the rest of the team followed him out of the room to get ready for the flight.

"O'Neill, you are not going to make us jump out of the plane again, are you?" Teal'c asked nervously, remembering their last plane trip together in Russia.

"No, not unless you start yelling at the in-flight movie again." Jack said jokingly.

"Dare I ask?" said Jonas, puzzled.

"I'll tell you on the way," said Sam as they all walked down the corridor leaving a bemused but concerned General Hammond behind in the meeting room.

"Sam, what are they talking about?" asked Jonas.

"We had to go to Russia last year, and to get to the place we were investigating, we had to take a jump. Teal'c wasn't too keen on the idea, and didn't like the thought of just a parachute to slow him down, he looked worried." She said, recalling the event and Teal'c's panicked reaction with a smile.

"I'm not sure I'd be too keen on the idea either. Had he ever done it before?" asked Jonas, thinking that he'd not like to do the same thing any time… ever.

"No, no practice jump, Colonel O'Neill just told him how to hold the 'chute and that was it. He's quite lucky he didn't break anything… of his or Colonel O'Neill's actually." Sam said, thinking that Teal'c could have easily killed Jack if he'd felt the need.

"Yeah, lucky…" Jonas trailed off feeling less excited than before about going on this flight.


	5. Chapter 5

**~Chapter 5~**

_Mulder and Scully, on the aeroplane to New York._

Scully was always nervous when she got onto a plane with Mulder. She always inevitably found herself remembering the horrible incident of the first time she had ever boarded a plane with him, and the plane had lurched forward, convincing everyone apart from him that they were going to crash while they were going through turbulence, she herself had been terrified, while Mulder had remained perfectly, and infuriatingly, calm eating his sunflower seeds, listening to his walkman and reading his magazine. She was always a little apprehensive about getting onto a plane with him. There was always that nagging concern in the back of her mind that it would happen again.

They had got onto the plane in Washington and were taking the short journey up to New York. She had hoped to catch up on a little sleep that she had missed from the night before, but Mulder wasn't giving her much chance of that.

Sitting in his usual seat next to the window, which always surprised Scully as she always thought he could use the leg room of the aisle seat, Mulder interrupted her peaceful frame of mind, "Look at these pictures though, Scully," he said with excitement taking them out of his briefcase and throwing the big brown envelope into her lap. "Take a really good look at them, and tell me what you think.." He waited, as he did every time he presented her with evidence of extra-terrestrial life, for her to agree with him and finally come round to his way of thinking and agree that there were such things as aliens. He recalled the time that he had asked her where the meteor had come from and she had replied 'Outer space' and he had been overjoyed, the look on his face had obviously displayed his inner happiness as Scully had shot him a dark look to tell him that she didn't think that any aliens had piggy-backed on it and landed on earth.

As Scully glanced at the photographs, unwillingly, she wondered how it was possible to be so obsessed with something so quickly. From what she had gathered the photos had only come to Mulder's attention early this morning, and now it was only about half past three in the afternoon and already he looked as though he'd been working on this case for a month. She thought that in a way he must see all his cases as one, linked together in his 'quest to find the truth' but why did he just have to be so obsessive?

"Well, what do you think?" he asked her as she was looking over them.

"I don't really know what to tell you, Mulder," she said with a touch of despair in her voice, "What do you want me to say?" She had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to listen to his point of view on the subject sooner or later, so she might as well get it over with sooner rather than later, she thought. Mulder's opinions were usually rather detailed and explicit which was, Scully thought, a polite way of saying long winded and boring.

"I just want to hear what you think of them." he said, knowing that she wasn't really interested, or convinced, but knowing that he had to do something to stop him dying from boredom and her from falling asleep. He always wondered how anyone could ever sleep on planes, thinking that there was too much to see outside – always the possibility of alien ships – and besides that he had always thought that planes were too loud to sleep on.

"I think they're very good at colour co-ordinating," she said sarcastically, hoping to get her message across.

"Scully, now you're just being sceptical… It's not colour co-ordination, it's fashion week!" he smiled at her, and then went on to explain what he thought they were. "Obviously we're dealing with some kind of spiritual possession of people here, these ghosts… probably… have obviously taken control of the people here and are probably making them follow their every whim." "What? To dress in gold and silver?" she asked, not really wanting an answer.

"Mind control, Scully… cults. A leader, obviously this guy dressed in gold, controlling the minds of those dressed in silver. But, as with many cults, the leader is now thought to be of extra-terrestrial origin," He told her as though he had researched the current thoughts of the community on the origins of the leaders of cults.

"Mind control by a ghost? How on earth do you come up with these things, Mulder?" Scully asked in bewilderment, really not wanting to know

"His eyes, Scully, you said for yourself that they weren't normal." "No, I said they were a little odd, and I didn't think you'd heard me, as you were on the phone at the time." She didn't even know how to deal with this topic in the middle of an aeroplane surrounded by the general public. "There might be a chance that this is all fake, Mulder, that someone just made this up on a computer, cos they were bored and got a kick from sending you on a wild goose chase… hence the no return address."

The thought hadn't occurred to Mulder, but he was still determined to prove to Scully he was right. "Well, that's what we're going to see Joe about, Mulder said wishing that his partner could be a little less sceptical about these things. She always seemed to make a joke of the things that were important to him, and although he understood that she was after all a scientist and did like the straightforward explanations that science and it's theories provided, he wished that Scully could be more open-minded about some of their cases and his explanations and theories.

He couldn't understand why they weren't as straightforward and understandable to everyone else in the world as they were to him. He always knew where his theories were going, which is why he never had any problems writing papers for his criminal psychology lectures in college at Oxford, and he always managed to do them in one sitting. He was always baffled at the people who took two or three weeks writing theirs. He didn't think that he'd ever be able to do that, to leave something and then go back to it later.

If there was one word that summed up Mulder's character it was 'Determination.' It applied to his work at college, his work professionally, his basketball playing and even the daily crossword. He never started work in the morning without completing it, and he always liked to do it on his own even when Scully offered to help and tell him the answers.

His mother had often told him that even as a baby he had been independent. At school he had been one of the more noticeable children in the class, never afraid to say what he wanted and he had never been afraid to get up at the front of the class to give his presentations, even when it was just as something as small as 'Show and Tell' he put as much effort into it as though it were a speech to the entire school in an assembly.

He applied this throughout his whole professional life, Scully had always noticed that, when he was giving her a briefing on whatever case they were about to begin working on, she felt like she shouldn't be the only person in the room, that Mulder was telling her as though she were one of a hundred people who were listening to him. She had often thought that with this skill of public speaking, he should have gone into politics.


	6. Chapter 6

**~Chapter 6~**

_On the plane to New York, Jonas and Teal'c sitting behind Jack and Sam._

"Do you think there's an in-flight movie on this plane?" Jack asked Sam.

"I don't know, sir, I hope if there is it's Monster's Inc. I've been dying to see it." Their flight out of Peterson airport had departed half an hour late, and Sam was worried that they wouldn't be able to meet the man who was getting the photos before this Mulder character, and here was Jack, wondering if there was an in-flight movie… sometimes the colonel infuriated her.

"Monster's Inc.? Not seen it," he replied, bemused that someone so intelligent as Carter could want to see a kids film, but then again, she was probably only wanting to watch it because of the computer generated images, she probably wanted some ideas for her simulations back in her lab on the base.

"My brother's kids told me about it, said that Sully is a funny character. I thought I'd better watch it at some point to see what they're on about."

Teal'c leant forward to join in the discussion, "Major Carter, I hear it is as good as that other children's movie, Ice Age."

"You watched that?" asked Jack, turning to face Teal'c amazed by the Jaffa's taste in films.

"Yes, O'Neill, indeed I did, I found it to be most amusing."

"I've not seen either of them, remind me to watch them when we get some time off," said Jonas, making a mental note to remember to watch the films.

"I will indeed, Jonas Quinn," said Teal'c.

"I've never been in New York before, Colonel O'Neill, what's it like?" asked Jonas, who was born naturally inquisitive.

"Oh, it's great, great night life, lots of shows, there's the Statue of Liberty, you can see that, there's the Empire State building, you can see that too, there's lots of stuff, we get the evening after next to see the sights so long as there are no complications and these photos prove to be fake, I promise. General Hammond has said we should all take a bit of a break, so we get to take in some shows and some sights and stuff, it'll be cool," said Jack, not sure where they were going to start with two non-earthlings and two people who couldn't really date because of their ranks in the USAF no matter how much they wanted to.

Jack and Sam had often gone out with Daniel and Teal'c, and more recently Jonas and Teal'c, in the town the SGC was based in. Just for dinner or to a movie because it was just nice to hang out and spend some time as a group away from work and saving the planet. Jack and Sam had often wondered if they dare go out alone, but always agreeing that more than a few eyebrows would be raised if they did go out more on their own. They had decided that they would be better off going out as a group as there wouldn't be any questions asked, and the jobs they loved wouldn't be in jeopardy. As much as they wanted to be with each other more often, they knew that they couldn't lose their jobs.

"I can't wait," said Jonas, a big smile across his face.

"It'll be fun," said Sam, looking over to Jack to see if he meant what he was saying. "But you have to promise, no boring plays!" Jack looked at her, "Of course, we're not here to catch up on sleep, we're here to work, and then have some fun. Hey, so, let me see his file again, Sam." She passed him the file on Agent Mulder and he began to study it.

While he was engrossed, trying to learn about the man they were trying to get hold of, and studying his photo, and that of his partner, Sam had turned to face Jonas and Teal'c, kneeling on her seat. "How many times have you been to New York, Major Carter?" asked Teal'c.

"Including the time in 1969?" she asked, remembering their fun journey through the stargate where they all had to 'dress up' to blend in with the people of the year they'd been sent back to. "Too many to count really, I've been here a lot, when I was a kid we moved around to wherever Dad was stationed, and then I've been visiting friends here, and I went to college here for a while, and so I lived on the campus… it's always fun in New York though."

"Wow, is there anywhere you haven't been?" asked Jonas.

"Um…. Alaska," she said with a smile. They laughed and carried on chatting.

Jack was intrigued by the man they were being sent to figure out. On the face of it all, he seemed like a nut, but with his education, and his theories, he'd obviously put a lot of work into them, he was obviously quite intelligent, probably more so than Jack, but Carter probably outsmarted him by at least a mile and a half. His theories, however well thought out, were off by a long shot, but hopefully he'd never get to find out the real truth. This man Mulder, who apparently… according to the notes… didn't like to be called by his first name 'Fox', seemed to be obsessed with all the government conspiracy theories of the last 50/60 years, beginning with the Roswell incident. He seemed to be bent on proving the government to be a load of liars, which for the most part they weren't but Jack knew that Senator Kinsey could probably do with being publicly flogged for his lies, and that things like Area 51 really did exist, and that it was all to cover up that aliens really do visit and abduct people. 'How wrong could one man be? And on oh so many levels.' Thought Jack to himself, shaking his head in amazement. He thought that if anyone who didn't have Mulder's job started saying these things, people would try to put them in a mental health hospital, and then he started searching through the stuff that Carter had found to see if in fact anyone had ever attempted to put Mulder into a mental health hospital… he was half expecting to find several stays in an institute like that and busied himself with trying to find a way to shut this man up, and get the photo's off him.

"Carter, you got Scully's file there too?" Jack asked, realising it was a good idea to thoroughly research both of the agents.

"Sure, here you go" she said, handing it to him.

As Jack looked through her file, he quickly saw that Scully and Mulder were like chalk and cheese. Complete opposites. Kind of like him and Sam. Scully was a scientist… Jack knew straight away he wouldn't really get along with her. He seemed to have a problem with scientists, he didn't like the big words they used, or how they spoke a nineteen to the dozen sometimes, and rattled off on tangents. Reading through the file Jack wondered why Scully would train to be a doctor, go through medical school and then suddenly change her mind and want to be an F.B.I. agent. It was something of a U-turn. Reading through the notes that her superiors had on her, he saw how she was favoured, a lot more so than Mulder, and they thought she had a lot of potential to go very far up in the bureau, if she got away from Mulder.

Her original task had been to debunk Mulder's work, and whilst she obviously hadn't succeeded, her superiors were impressed that she had brought rational and scientific theories to his and somewhat slowed him down. The thought that Sam and Scully would get on like a house on fire suddenly occurred to Jack. He would have to remind himself not to be there for the long conversations.


	7. Chapter 7

**~Chapter 7~**

_Mulder and Scully on their way to the hotel, Mulder driving._

"Scully, are you sure you're holding that map the right way round?" Mulder asked, worried that the two of them were going to be late for their meeting with Joe if they were late checking in to their rooms.

"Yes, Mulder, you do know that they teach this stuff… map holding 101 at the academy, in the first week? You do remember that don't you?"

"Of course," he said, with a forced smile to his partner. It had been a long time since he had been to the academy. His training had been long before Scully's, although they were of similar age, she had pursued a career in medicine before deciding to join the F.B.I and so her training was much more up to date than his own. "I passed with an A" he told her, making it up, there was no such class of course, but they were told the importance of making sure that attention to detail was one of the factors that must be considered at all times.

Scully always enjoyed the conversations they had in the car when they were working. No matter how pathetic they may have seemed, they always made her smile. Mulder had a gift for making car journeys seem less boring. He'd bring along tapes to sing to, albeit badly, and he'd invent car games for especially long journeys. She thought that some of the words he made up out of the license plates of other cars wouldn't be anywhere near legal on a scrabble board, but still, he made her laugh and she was grateful. The few occasions they had travelled with other agents in a car, to conferences held by the bureau and courses and so on, had always been really boring as they hadn't been as fun loving as Mulder. She was always grateful for his efforts to make life interesting. And if there was one thing that could be said about Mulder, it was that he was 'interesting'. He amused her.

"Turn left at the next exit" Scully instructed him as the sign for the turnoff from the road approached.

"Ah, yeah, now I know where we are." Mulder said, like he had never been worrying about anything.

Scully bemused at her partner's approach to map reading… this criticism coming from a man who had managed to get them lost on the way to the new mall that had been built. "What time is the meeting with Joe?" she asked, trying to make conversation as Mulder popped another handful of sunflower seeds into his mouth. "This evening," he said, not waiting to swallow them first.

"Mulder, didn't your mother ever teach you manners?" Scully said, teasing him about his lack of etiquette which she had often noticed when they had been driving around the country. He always seemed to be eating sunflower seeds, and she wondered if she should ask if he had been a hamster in a previous life, but thinking that would only be an admittance of 'believing' as Mulder put it, rather than a joke, she thought better of it.

As Mulder took the last corner into the street of their hotel, Scully was looking forward to having a couple of hours to herself before the dreaded meeting. It was only around half five, and so she'd be able to take a quick shower and a change of clothes and re-do her makeup before going out. Mulder, on the other hand, was looking forward to having more time to study the photos. With their assignments being mostly official F.B.I protocol made most of them classified too. It had been difficult talking to Scully about the photographs on the plane, with so many people around, not knowing who was listening in and who wasn't.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of Scully's phone. "Hello" she answered, wondering who it was as Mulder was sitting right next to her.

"Agent Scully, have you and Agent Mulder landed yet?" asked their boss, Assistant Director Walter Skinner.

"Yes sir, we're just coming up to check into the hotel right now, sir" she replied as she mouthed 'Skinner' to Mulder who was looking at her to see who it was on the other end of the phone.

"Well, make sure you report in tomorrow morning with your findings, Agent Scully, I'm clocking off for the night, so I'll want an update on your progress in the morning."

"Yes sir, would you prefer a phone call or an email or fax?" she asked.

"Save the emails for your final report, Scully, just a call will do. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, sir" and he rung off.

"What did he want?" asked Mulder, wary of the fact that the boss was calling them so early. Skinner was the kind of man who could be your best friend or your worst enemy. You never quite knew where you stood with him, he was always somewhat shrouded in mystery within himself. He had the kind of face that showed no emotion, you never knew what he was thinking. He had been in the Marines himself, so he probably got it from there, where it was somewhat of a necessity to have that skill.

"He wants us to call in the morning, tell him what we come up with," Scully told him, a bit worried herself why the boss was calling so soon. True, you never really knew where you stood with him, but he had helped them get out of more than a few messes in their time. "I'll call him tomorrow if you like," she offered, thinking it would give her something to do but on the other hand not really wanting to because Skinner always spent just a little too long on the phone with her. The phone calls he had with Mulder always seemed to be a lot shorter than the calls he made to her.

"Yeah, if you like, but only if you want to, I mean, I don't mind doing it," Mulder said. "Well, lets see how we feel in the morning, and what we find out tonight," she said, logically.

As Mulder turned into the car park of the hotel, Scully was relieved to be able to get out and stretch her legs for a bit. She hoped her room had a TV.

They checked in and went to their rooms, just opposite the hall from one another. As Mulder put Scully's bag down on her bed, she sat on the chair opposite and took off her shoes wriggling her toes. "Foot massage?" Mulder offered, jokingly.

"I'm going to dive into the shower, Mulder, what time do you want me ready for?"

"It's ok, I'll knock in a while, we'll have something to eat first, huh?" he asked. Scully wondered how he could be hungry after eating all those sunflower seeds, but agreed and said that they'd go to a restaurant or something.

Mulder left her room, and ventured into his own, switching on the TV and doing as Scully had, taking his shoes off and wriggling his toes feeling the comparison of the soft carpet under his feet instead of his hard soled leather shoes. Stretching his arms up above his head he let out a huge yawn. The flight had obviously tired him out more than he had anticipated it would. Now he found himself struggling to keep his eyes open, and suddenly feeling really hungry. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night before they were going to get back to their rooms and be able to get some sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**~Chapter 8~**

_SG1 checking into the hotel, unbeknownst to them, the same one as Mulder and Scully._

"It'll be good to stretch my legs," said Jonas, who didn't much care for aeroplanes. He hadn't been in many, but those he had been in, he hadn't cared much for. He always found them to be cramped and too hot and sticky, even if it had been the middle of the winter, despite the air conditioning.

"As it will be for me" said Teal'c who, at well over six feet, had felt very cramped in the tiny space between the aeroplane seats. He had not said anything, as it was not in his nature to complain, but as Jonas had mentioned that it would be good to stretch his legs, Teal'c felt that he could also agree.

Teal'c was a man of very few words, but what he did say often held great importance, and was almost always relevant to the situation. As a former warrior to the Goa'uld Apophis, he was First Prime which was the highest honour a Jaffa could receive, he provided a lot of intelligence and very useful information for the SGC. He was like a walking encyclopaedia of Goa'uld knowledge. He was over 100 years old, the symbiote inside him gave him a longer life, boosted his immune system, and in turn this made him blessed with strength not many people on Earth had. He was a graceful man, always walking without effort, and very polite. He was always bowing to people, it was a custom that he had never grown out of from his former days on Chulac, his home planet. He had deserted the Goa'uld, believing them to be false gods, which they were, and he had joined the Tau'ri, the Goa'uld name for Earth in the fight against the Goa'uld. In return for his knowledge, they had given him a job, and he had new friends and the chance to learn a new way of life.

"Yeah, it'll be good to get out and walk around New York for a while," Sam said.

"Yeah, but only after we've seen this guy first," said Jack, usually all for having a tour around a big city, but realising that Hammond was going to want an update report on the phone first thing in the morning, so they better not enjoy themselves before taking care of business.

As they checked in at reception, Sam caught a glance at the list of other guests, for a small hotel they were quite busy. It seemed all the rooms were either already full, or booked for that evening. She was just turning her head away, when she caught sight of two names that registered with her.

She followed Jack into his room, Teal'c and Jonas were down the hall from them. "Carter?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face, "Isn't your room across the hall?"

"Yes, sir, but I need to talk to you. I got a look of the guest list when we were checking in downstairs… Mulder and his partner Scully are also staying here."

"Really… well, there's a turn up for the books, huh?" He said, thinking that now they'd be able to keep an eye on the two agents even better.

"Yes sir, but it might also pose a problem," she said, knowing what he was thinking, the same thought had occurred to her. "I'm worried that if things get bad, it might be an awful situation at breakfast in the morning. Plus, we'd better get a move on to see this guy if they're already here. We'd better go and ask reception if they've already left."

"I'll get on it now then, Carter, you call Hammond and tell him what we've got so far." He said as he made his way out of his room and down to reception. Jack walked down the hall to the lift, and pressed the button. When the elevator didn't appear instantly he pressed the button again, and then again a few times more with impatience. He was not one for waiting around for things, he liked to get things done quickly, which made more time for fishing. He was a big fan of fishing, he had taken Teal'c once, but unfortunately for Jack, Teal'c had not shared his enthusiasm for the pastime.

The elevator appeared and he pressed the ground floor button, looking around the lift, and at the ceiling, just in case it stopped and he had to get out. He had never been a big fan of them.

"Hi!" Jack said, cheerfully to the receptionist behind the desk.

"Hello, sir, can I help you?"

"Um, yeah, we've just checked in..."

"Yes, sir. Is there a problem with your room?" she asked in the manner that her training obviously taught her to.

"No, no, it's great, love the big bed… big bed!" he said moving his arms to demonstrate the size of the bed. "No, um" he said, getting back on track, "We have a couple of colleagues staying here, Mr Mulder and Miss Scully, and we were wondering if they've already left yet?"

"Um, no sir, they only checked in about 15 minutes before you, they're probably still unpacking."

"Thanks, um, do you have their room numbers? I'd like to go say hi."

As she told him the room numbers, Jack hoped that she wouldn't say anything to the F.B.I. agents to give them away. "Thank you, see you later!" he gave her a smile and went to find Sam.

Walking up the corridor, humming to himself, taking in his surroundings, he bumped into Teal'c, literally. "Whoa, hey, sorry, Teal'c, wasn't looking where I was going."

"That is alright, O'Neill, I was just coming to find you. Should we not be going out to meet the man called Joe?" he asked. "Yeah, we're gonna go in a minute, I'm just going to see Carter first, and then we'll be going. Can you tell Jonas? And… make sure he leaves the camera here, he can take all the tourist shots he likes tomorrow, but I don't wanna have to smile and pose tonight." Jack had often wondered how Jonas could have so much enthusiasm for taking photos of everything he came across. In one way he reminded Jack of Daniel, the only difference was, Daniel used to catalogue all his photographs, for Jonas it was more of a hobby.

"Of course, O'Neill, I shall go and inform him now."

As Teal'c left Jack, Jack remembered where he was going and walked to Sam's room. When she opened the door she was dressed in casual clothes, with wet hair, a look that he thought suited her very much. "Hey, I'm not interrupting am I?" he asked, as she ran a towel over her head.

"No, sir, just freshening up… come in." she walked away from the door leaving him to come in and close it behind him.

"So, I have the room numbers of our little friends from the F.B.I. and they've not left yet according to the girl on reception" he told her, looking round her room, and sitting down on the bed, testing the firmness with his hands at the side of him. "Then we should get going now then" she said.

"Yeah, I've got Teal'c getting Jonas ready now… told him to leave the camera behind." As they walked out of Sam's room she laughed, hoping that they'd get to Joe before Mulder and Scully did.


	9. Chapter 9

**~Chapter 9~**

_Mulder and Scully going to have dinner before seeing Joe._

"Hi," said Mulder, interrupting the receptionist at the desk from reading the newspaper. "Hello, sir, can I help you?" she asked, moving the paper to one side and concentrating her attention on the F.B.I. agent before her.

"Yeah, we were wondering if you could recommend anywhere that's good to eat in town?"

"Um, well, there's the new restaurant that's just opened, it's Italian, it's called 'Pinocchio's'."

"Cool, is it any good? Have you been there?" he asked, not really wanting Italian if it was going to be as bad as the last time he'd gone to an Italian restaurant. Of course, that was three years ago, but still…

"Yes, sir, I went just last week, it's very friendly, good food, great value too." She smiled at him.

"Thank you, we'll try there then." As she gave him the directions to the restaurant, Scully came out of the lift and joined him. "Dinner?" she said,

"Yeah, dinner," he replied.

As Mulder drove them to the restaurant, Scully was worried about the upcoming evening.

"You remembered the photographs, Mulder?"

"Of course, what do you take me for Scully?" he asked, faking a hurt look on his face. She smiled at him and wondered how she always managed to get dragged into these things. 'Oh for a normal life' she thought to herself.

"So, where are we going for dinner?" she wondered, hoping it wasn't a greasy spoon diner.

"A nice Italian restaurant recommended by that very nice, young, receptionist back at the hotel."

"You buying then?" she asked, smiling.

"Sure, why not?" Mulder said, suddenly feeling very generous, and not just because he was distracted by the thought of the very pretty receptionist they had just been talking with.

As they sat down at their table they each ordered some drinks, Mulder a beer, and Scully, a glass of house white. She started browsing over the menu, while he started browsing over the photographs, again. "Mulder, will you put those away?" she asked him, exasperated. "You're going to wear the print out. You won't be able to tell if they're real or not till Joe looks at them and analyses them, so put them down and have dinner!"

Mulder, looking shocked, sat back in his seat and muttered under his breath, "Yes Ma'am!" thinking that she was very bossy for someone so small. Being bossy suited Scully, it just seemed to be something she was naturally good at, that she didn't have to work on and that the skill came to her with ease. He imagined that it would have been very beneficial to her if she hadn't gone into the F.B.I. and had pursued her career in medicine. He thought that if she were to ever be in charge of an emergency room, then the patient turnover would be very quick and the waiting rooms wouldn't be as full as some of the hospitals in the country could be.

As they waited for their meals to come, after the waiter had taken their order and rushed off busily into the kitchen, the two F.B.I. agents tried to make small talk, asking about each other's families, and talking about the weather, and Mulder went on about baseball for a while, until Scully interrupted him by saying, "I don't want to be the one who has to call Skinner tomorrow… you can do it if you like."

"You changed your mind?" he asked, knowing that this would have happened eventually, not that he minded, he fully understood Scully's problem. She was well aware that their superior liked her, and she didn't want to do anything to encourage him. Mulder felt kind of sorry for Scully, not knowing whether Skinner's help was for the sake of helping, or to try and impress her. It must have been very difficult for her to not know where to draw the line with conversations, and to try to avoid giving him any subconscious hints, however slight they might have been whether she was aware of them or not, that she might feel the same way. Mulder assumed she didn't think of Skinner in the same way as Skinner thought of her. The thought had also occurred to Mulder that the reason Skinner always seemed so short tempered and didn't have much time for Mulder was because he was close with Scully. Jealousy could be an awful thing sometimes.

"Yeah, sure, of course, no problem with that." He said.

"Thanks, Mulder." Scully said, very glad and relived that Mulder understood her awkward predicament. The last thing she wanted to do was to get into a non-professional conversation with Skinner, he did tend to get carried away sometimes and ask questions that had in the past made her feel a bit uneasy. But at the same time she enjoyed her job and to annoy the boss wasn't a great career move, and the last thing she wanted to do was throw all her hard work down the drain. She had worked hard to gain the respect of her partner, her superiors and fellow agents, which had been extremely difficult considering that most of them had just laughed when they had found out that she would be working with 'Spooky Mulder.' They had been hard to get on side, and the last thing she wanted to do was jeopardise that.

"So," she said, changing the subject, "do you know how to get to Joe's from this place?"

"Yeah, it's not too far from here, actually. Just about ten minutes away. And, get this Scully.. you'll like this, it's in a proper building that doesn't have camera's in front of the front door." When Mulder had told her about Joe, he had the feeling that she'd thought he was another 'Lone Gunmen' type. Mulder knew that Scully only tolerated Frohike, Langly and Byers for his sake, and for that he was forever grateful. The three were paranoid, even for Mulder's standards, camera's inside and outside of their office, they each had one third of the mailing list for their monthly issued magazine, for God knows what reason. And they never ever just had a regular Internet connection, it was bounced off about three different servers, just in case they were traced. Mulder didn't want to tell them that the F.B.I., C.I.A and the Pentagon had better things to do with their time than chase the three men who were more obsessed with global and universal conspiracies than he was.

"That's a relief," said Scully, she didn't want to be faced with another does of paranoid, paranormal fanatics like the 'Lone Gunmen' and at least this Joe person seemed to have some solid, national recognised and respected credentials. This seemed to enhance the likely hood that he wasn't a paranoid, paranormal fanatic. "Shall we go then?" she asked, reaching beneath her chair for her handbag.

"Can't we have ice cream first?" said Mulder, using his irresistible 'puppy-dog' face to convince her that it mightn't be a bad idea to get dessert.

"Ok, then, but as long as I can have both strawberry and vanilla."

"Waiter…" called Mulder, as they smiled and settled down for dessert.


	10. Chapter 10

**~Chapter 10~**

_SG1 in Joe's office, trying to get him to agree to their requests._

The four members of SG1 stood looking around the office at all the computers, Sam was feeling slightly jealous that Joe had more in his office than she did in her lab, but was inwardly reassured that hers were better. "Joe, may we call you Joe?" asked Jack, not really anticipating a negative response.

"Sure, that's my name" said Joe, as the tall dusty blonde haired man took a seat on one of the high swivel stools next to a computer and removed his thick rimmed glasses to clean them. "We'll get straight to the point," Jack said, steadying himself on his feet as he wondered how on earth he was going to ask this man to betray a friend.

"Ok…" said Joe, beginning to wonder what these four people were doing in his office. The guy with the grey hair didn't' seem so bad, he'd been the only one to talk so far, and seemed like a pretty straight-to-business kind of guy. The blonde guy hadn't said much, and was almost hiding behind the guy who seemed to be in charge, the one who was doing the talking. The blonde haired woman was hot, nosey as Joe watched her take in all of her surroundings just a little to intensely, but hot nevertheless. The big guy at the back, looked like he might have been a football player, he was huge, Joe had never seen anyone so huge as him before, at least not in person.

"I'm Jack O'Neill, I'm a Colonel in the U.S.A.F. and we've come to talk to you about your friend F.B.I Special Agent Mulder." Jack thought he'd gotten off to a pretty good start so far. He had been rehearsing his speech in his head to himself from the moment they had left the hotel. He wanted to get it just right, and sound professional and make sure that he didn't give too much away all at the same time as getting exactly what information they needed from Joe.

"What about him?" Joe asked, beginning to get suspicious.

"We understand that he's coming to see you tonight, has he already been?" Jack asked hoping they'd beaten the two F.B.I agents to the chase. "No, not yet, I'm expecting him in about an hour, why? Why are you so interested in him?" Joe asked, watching the big guy at the back, who for some strange reason was wearing a trilby hat. "He's coming to show you some photographs," said Sam, having finished looking around the room and having now turned her attention to the man sitting on the stool in front of her.

"Yeah, I know, he's asked me to verify that they're real for him." Joe told her, trying to concentrate on the words he was saying and trying to find out why the Air Force was taking such an interest in Mulder and not on the blonde haired woman who seemed to be more interested in his computers rather than in him, which he was more than slightly disappointed about. Joe never had any luck with women.

"We want you to get a copy to us, if that's ok." said Jonas, figuring that he may as well jump into the conversation with his own little piece.

"Um, why?" asked Joe, suddenly feeling very suspicious and very aware of the big guy at the back who hadn't taken his eyes off him since he had finished looking around the room.

"We'd like to take a look at them, we hear they're interesting, and we'd also just… love it if you could, you know, not mention any of this to Mulder till we do get a copy of them." Said Jack, knowing that the likely hood of the last request, and in fact all of it, was somewhat slim to none.

"Um, well, I don't know… what do you want them for?"

"I'm afraid we cannot tell you that, Joe" said Teal'c, his voice sending tremors of fear through Joe, almost sending him off the back end of his stool, the man sounded as scary as he looked.

Straightening himself out and trying not to look like too much of a fool in front of Sam, still hoping to impress her, Joe replied, "Um, yeah, sure, I can get you some copies if you like, but it's probably nothing that interesting, just probably another one of Mulder's conspiracy theories." His voice getting slightly anxious since Teal'c had spoken.

"Yeah, we know he's a bit of a conspiracy nut, but we'd still like a copy of whatever he brings you, just for arguments sake." Said Jack, picking up a pencil off the desk and fiddling with it before putting it back down again.

"Shall we come and pick them up tomorrow morning? Say about half nine?" Sam said, making Joe turn his attention away from Teal'c and Jack and turning his focus back to the subject and her question.

"Um, yeah, I'll be able to do a few copies by then. What is it you're looking for in the photos?" he asked her, not thinking that she'd really tell him.

"Well," she said, smiling, "If we see it we'll know."

"See you tomorrow, bright and early!" said Jack as he took one more, quick, look around the office and turned to leave. Making a note of how everything looked, just in case something was to happen overnight. It was a habit that Jack had always been glad to have. He didn't think that Joe was the bolting type, he had too much equipment to just pack up and leave in the middle of the night never to be heard of again, but just in case he decided he was going to call in sick tomorrow or take the day off, Jack thought it might be a good idea to remember where everything was in case Mulder and Scully got here first in the morning. The last thing they wanted was for the two of them to find out that Joe had made copies of the photographs. That would make them suspicious and could blow the whole operation out of the water which is exactly what they didn't need.

"Bye Joe, see you tomorrow," said Sam as she followed Jack to the door, Jonas quickly behind her as the big man walked towards Joe. The closer he came the further on his stool Joe leant back till he almost fell off it.

"We shall meet again tomorrow, Joe." Said Teal'c and bowed, tilting his head to one side with his hands folded behind his back, slightly smiling at Joe.

"Um, yeah," said a terrified Joe, "See you tomorrow, and don't worry, I won't say a thing to Mulder about you being here, I promise," he said, meaning every word of it. He felt as though the big man would be able to tell just by looking at him if he said anything to anyone about his visitors that night. The last thing he wanted to do was annoy the man who looked like he could crush Joe in one hand.

As SG1 left, Joe sat back on the stool properly, breathing a sigh of relief and putting his glasses back on and wondering when his hands were going to stop shaking and when his heart was going to stop doing cartwheels in his chest. Straightening out some of his papers and moving back to his computer to get on with some work, he tried taking several deep breaths to calm his nerves. He thought he could really do with a stiff drink, maybe a whisky. Putting his hand to his head, Joe wondered if his health insurance would cover heart attacks by having the living daylights scared out of you.


	11. Chapter 11

**~Chapter 11~**

_Mulder and Scully outside Joe's office in a downtown high rise building surrounded by other offices of other companies._

"This is where he works when he's not working, Scully" Mulder informed his partner. "He has to work weekends with his regular job, so he gets days off in the week to allow him to do freelance work. I've called him about these photos and so he's classing this as a freelance job, and cos it's for the F.B.I, it's tax deductible too!"

Scully shook her head in amazement at just how mean some of Mulder's friends could be when it came to giving anything to the government. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" she asked, not really wanting an answer. Some of Mulder's associates and friends were so suspicious of the government, no matter who was in power, that they would go to any lengths to avoid giving them anything they didn't have to.

Mulder knocked on the door, and they heard Joe's voice from inside telling them that the door was open. As Mulder pushed open the door and stood aside, allowing Scully to go in first, he flashed her one of his smiles, the kind she always knew was going to lead them into some boring session, but the kind of smile she always gave in to. She had never really figured out how he always managed to do that.

She walked into the office and took a good look around, while Mulder walked over to Joe and shook his old friend's hand and exchanged greetings and pleasantries with him.

"Hey Joe, how you doing?" asked Mulder.

"Fine thanks, what's happening with you?" Joe replied wanting to catch up with his old friend.

"Nothing much, the usual, work, work and more work. Chasing the truth as always." Mulder said as though he almost suffered the task rather than enjoyed it.

"Yeah, you and your quest for the truth" Joe shook his head wondering how anyone could be so focused on just one thing. "You still playing basketball with the guys?" he asked, wondering if the team they had both once played on was still up and running.

"Yeah, when we get the chance we go to the park and have a few games." Mulder replied, thinking that it had been too long since he had indulged in one of his favourite sports.

"Cool." Said Joe, bringing the pleasantries and catch up's to an end.

Looking round the office, Mulder saw that it was a mess, granted not as much of a mess as his own, but it was certainly more than a little disorganised. There were machines all over the place, and slides, negatives and photographs strewn all over numerous tables and work surfaces. Three different computers had three different sets of photos on them, all with complicated programs going through some kind of automated diagnosis on the images. Just as she'd turned her attention away from one it started to beep.

"Oh, hang on a sec," Joe said moving over to the computer. "I'll just have a look at what my program found on this image, and I'll be right with you," he said as he sat at the computer after moving a pile of photographs from the seat in front of the machine. He clicked the mouse, and leaned closer into the screen, and examined the findings.

"Is this the new program you designed?" Mulder asked as he followed Joe over to the computer.

"Yeah, this is the one, it's worked out better than I'd hoped, actually." Joe said, "But I'm still waiting to find a huge problem with it in the middle of a really important project."

"You shouldn't be so negative, Joe," said Mulder, trying to encourage his friend, "You know if you think like that it'll happen. But I'm sure it's a great programme. Look at it this way, if it's not let you down so far, it probably won't."

Scully watched the two men as they concentrated on the screen, she took time to take in Joe's appearance. He didn't look anything like what she had expected. He was tall, with dusty blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was quite tanned, he was quite good looking too, she thought, surprised as she was expecting someone who had glasses as thick as jam jars and maybe even a funny voice. His glasses were thick rimmed, but not that thick a lens. They suited him, they were the type of frame that just looked like they were built to enhance his looks. He looked kind of cute in them.

"Yeah, this is the one," said Joe, as he looked at the screen he pointed out what the computer found to Mulder, not even having said hello to Scully yet. Then again, she hadn't said hello to him yet either, in fact, Mulder hadn't introduced them. As she watched the men, she found herself subconsciously tidying herself, arranging her skirt so it was straight, pulling her jacket down and checking her hair with her hands so that she'd seem presentable to the stranger. Not that she thought it'd be much of an interest to him, not considering the state of his office. But he was attractive, and it never hurt to look good. She was surprised at herself for thinking that way but, she thought to herself, 'Never say never.' As Mulder had always tried to instil into her, albeit in a different context, anything was possible. Ok, so Joe might be a bit of a nerd, and not her type, but underneath the computer programmer exterior, he was quite good looking, and she was only human after all.

Joe ran the image on the computer through another program, after entering the findings from the first program into the second program and turned his full attention to Mulder.

"This is Scully," Mulder said to Joe, "Scully, this is Joe" he said, finally introducing them.

"Hi," said Joe, giving her a smile, immediately jealous of Mulder for having a partner so pretty.

"Hello, Joe," she replied, smiling back.

"So, what can I do for you today, Mulder? You said something about a photo?" Joe asked, getting straight to the point.

Mulder took the photographs out of the envelope he was carrying, and showed it to Joe, who immediately took a magnifying glass to it, and browsed over it quickly.

"Is this for real? Have you seen this guy's eyes?" he asked Mulder as he was checking for signs of tampering.

"Yeah, I've seen it, which is why I've brought it to you, to see if it's for real."

"Well, there aren't any of the classic tampering signs on this image, well, not those that are visible to the human eye anyway, but to be sure we'll have to run it through a couple of programs, how long have you got?"

"All evening, haven't we Scully?" Mulder said, turning to her and smiling.

"Yeah, we're not doing anything else this tonight," she said trying to sound annoyed at him for wasting her time, but also pleased that she might actually be able to get to know this guy Joe.

Joe placed the photo in a scanner and started running the image through one of his programs, as he and Mulder started going through some of his work, while Scully tried to clear herself a seat. Work had begun, and the boys were playing with their toys. 'God I'm bored' she thought to herself.


	12. Chapter 12

**~Chapter 12~**

_SG1 having dinner back at the hotel._

"Well, that seemed to go easily, don't you think?" Jonas asked, surprised at how easily Joe had agreed not to tell Mulder and Scully anything about their visit there.

"Yeah, I thought so too, seemed a little too easy to get him to agree, don't you think?" agreed Sam wondering why Joe had agreed so readily and whether he actually meant it.  
"Ah, he was just terrified of Teal'c, that's why he said yes." said Jack, knowing that the big man could be quite intimidating if the situation required it.

"I believe so," said Teal'c.

"And the big guy's never wrong," said Jack. "Now lets eat,"

as he looked at the menu.

"So, sir, what do you think he'll find in the photographs?" asked Sam, worried that Joe might change his mind if they were indeed real.

"I don't know, I hope it's not what we think it is, and I hope he'll just think that it is like he said… another one of Mulder's conspiracy theories."

"Apparently even his friends think he's a nut," said Jonas, wondering how someone with idea's like Mulder's could get so high up in an organisation like the F.B.I. Since his time on Earth, Jonas had tried to learn as much as he could about the American system of government, and compared it to other governments in the world. He had tried to learn as much of Earth history as he could, taking in great detail about the Ancient Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans and more recently he had been studying the British Empire and learnt how America and Australia had been founded, as colonies for criminals. He had found it interesting that one of the nations once reserved for criminals had become the most powerful nation on the planet. There was something oddly curious about that. He had read through all of Dr Jackson's notes and his comparisons between the cultures on earth and those of the planets they had visited through the stargate. He hoped that someday he would be able to visit some of these countries, when he was a little more 'worldly-wise' so to speak.

Jonas had lived on the planet that Daniel Jackson had saved, and ended up giving his life in the process for. Jonas had felt very guilty that Daniel had been accused of stealing and destroying the experiment when all he had been doing was trying to prevent them from making a huge mistake. They had not realised the power of the element called 'Naquadria' that they had been using, and Daniel had suffered massive radiation burns that inevitably proved to be fatal.

Jonas had left his planet when he realised that they didn't really have a clue what they were doing, as they were about forty years behind Earth in terms of technology, and had joined the SGC as a refugee. He had nowhere else in the universe to turn, he had been seen as a traitor by his own people and it had been made clear that he wasn't welcome back there. So he had stayed on Earth, eventually becoming part of SG1 when Colonel O'Neill had finally accepted him. He had tried to fit in as best he could, immediately getting along with Sam Carter, who was somewhat of his intellectual equal.

He had been introduced to a lot of different things since he had been on Earth. His favourite was hair gel. Before he had come to the planet his hair had always looked awful, then one day Sam had taken him to the local supermarket to get some things for him and he, being naturally inquisitive, had wondered what it was and so Sam showed him how to use it. To this day Jonas hadn't found one single better thing he liked about Earth than hair gel.

"Yeah, imagine having friends who think you're wacko," said Jack, "You wouldn't be on the top of anyone's Christmas card list, would you?" he said, jokingly as the waiter came to take their orders.

"How much do we know about his partner?" asked Jonas, wondering if Scully followed his theories too.

"Well, there wasn't as much information on her as there was for him, but I did do a little background check." Sam told him, realising that only she and Jack had read Scully's file. "She's a medical doctor, and after she'd graduated she decided she'd go to the F.B.I. academy to be an agent. She's very much the scientist, and from what I gathered she was originally assigned to 'The X Files' by her superiors in order to debunk Mulder's work. She's not done that, instead she tries to bring logic and science to his explanations to make them seem more plausible, from what I can tell." said Sam, thinking that under other circumstances the two of them could have been friends. "She usually ends up doing most of the autopsies that Mulder requests… rather her than me," said Sam, glad that she was a doctor of theoretical astrophysics instead of a forensic pathologist. Sam had never been bothered by dead bodies in the field, it was after all just part of the job, but doing autopsies on them was where she drew the line, that was when her squeamishness took over her professional attitude.

"Yeah, not a nice job," said Jack. "And not a nice topic to be discussing over dinner, either, so let's change it, shall we kids?" He said, becoming queasy over the thought of discussing how much the average human brain weighs over his ravioli.

"What is the plan for tomorrow then?" asked Jonas,

"Well, we'll go see Joe, and find out if the photos are real, then we'll report to Hammond and see what he says either way," said Jack, hoping that they'd be able to see the sights like General Hammond had promised them they could, but knowing that he probably wouldn't be. Jack hated doing paperwork, and that was what this Mulder guy was already creating… paperwork and lots of it. He already disliked this guy. If this mess stopped now, then he could deal with that, but if it carried on he could see that he'd be drowning in it by the end of the week, and not even a life boat would be able to save him.

Reading his mind, Sam asked him, "You'll probably end up wanting to strangle Mulder if the pictures are real, too much paperwork involved, huh sir?"

"Yeah.." Jack said, sighing heavily… "Paperwork… you know I can take a bullet fine… but paperwork.. that's something you never ever recover from." Sam looked down and smiled, while Jonas laughed at him, Teal'c turned his head to the side and raised his eyebrow wondering why Jack disliked this part of his job so much. For Teal'c paperwork was just another way of learning more of the language that he could speak so well, but not write as fluently. He had been taking lessons in writing from different books that Jack had got for him when he first came to Earth.

Jack had helped Teal'c out a lot, and for that he was most grateful. He had taught Teal'c a lot of the customs of their culture, so that Teal'c would feel more at home knowing them, and be able to fit in better with his fellow SGC colleagues and not feel so much like an outsider.

At first, Teal'c was having problems grasping the many different types of sense of humour on the planet. The one liners that Jack often came out with he found most amusing and was growing accustomed to, but when he had been watching the television, he had been most confused by 'Seinfeld' and 'Frasier.' Teal'c wondered why he couldn't have had TV on his own planet.


	13. Chapter 13

**~Chapter 13~**

_Mulder and Scully, back at the hotel in Scully's room._

"So, Mulder, do you think Joe will give you the answers you want?" asked Scully, hoping that he wouldn't as she sat down on the edge of her bed and flopped backwards, tired from the long day she was having. She knew the consequences of Mulder getting the answers he wanted, and sent up a silent prayer to God that he wouldn't.

"Hope so, but I guess we'll just have to see, huh Scully?" he said, knowing that Scully was hoping to be home by tomorrow afternoon, but hoping that they'd be able to run some in-depth tests on the photographs if they weren't fakes. He looked at Scully lying on her bed with her legs dangling over the side, not touching the ground, and thought that he'd better go.

"Well, I'll leave you to get some rest then," he said, getting up to leave. "Aren't we going to have some dinner though?" she asked, "I'm hungry… shall we just order room service?"

"Ah, now Agent Scully," he replied with mock shock and stern tone, shaking his finger at her, "You know very well that the Bureau frowns on room service!" she laughed at him weakly and threw a pillow at him.

"Just pick up the phone and order some salads, Mulder!" she ordered, not wanting to move herself.

"Yes Ma'am" he said and as he walked over to the phone and ordered their dinner for them. There she was being bossy again, Mulder worried that sometimes it came just a little too naturally to her.

Scully kicked off her shoes and sat up and took some casual clothes into the bathroom. She was glad that she, like Mulder, always kept a spare suitcase in the trunk of her car just in case they ever got called away at a moment's notice. It had often happened to them, a hazard of the job. So she always had a spare suit in there, and a set of casual clothes to sit in, in the evenings and type up her reports and findings while they were away. They had both learnt that the teachings of the academy were right and there for their own benefit. She had learnt to always carry her laptop and a spare battery with her, just in case they were in the middle of nowhere and she hadn't got a power source for her plug.

"Do you really believe that they're aliens, Mulder? You can't seriously think that, I mean, they look human… please don't tell me you think they're aliens." She said, through the bathroom door. Mulder could have sworn that he could hear her rolling her eyes.

"Maybe, Scully, maybe. You just never know. Is it not possible even to you that we didn't originate on this planet? That we are in fact the aliens to this world? Many theorists have asked that question, Scully, where do we come from, and why is it that if we're evolved from primates they're still alive? Is it not even remotely possible that we came from another planet?" he asked as she walked back into the room with her hands on her hips shaking her head at him.

"What, so we're all originally from another planet and we came here because?" she asked, immediately regretting it.

"Well, any number of reasons, there could have just been a few, the original world could have been in the midst of a war, or ecological breakdown and so the few who could, the best of them, the elite, chose to set out and find somewhere habitable for them to live and recreate the world."

"So, how come we don't know about this? How come there aren't any tell tale signs, Mulder? Did they have a massive case of amnesia? Did their ship crash and burn? Did they all have a collective case of mass amnesia? You can't seriously believe all this? Do you actually hear what's coming out of your mouth?" She looked at him, where he was sitting in the corner of the room in the big chair. The look on his face told her that he was half joking, but that he also thought that this might be a genuine explanation for human life on earth.

"Truth is stranger than fiction, Scully." he said, smiling up at her. "Nice quotation of Byron there, Mulder," she said, not returning his smile, but wondering what she must have done wrong in a previous life to deserve having to listen to this all day. Not that she didn't like working with Mulder, the two of them had gone through hell and high-water together on more than one occasion, in the process become really good friends, spending time together outside of work to catch a movie occasionally or go shopping for each other's Christmas and birthday presents, depending on each other more than most F.B.I. agents both having saved the other's life on numerous occasions, and they had seen some pretty strange things. But sometimes not even the strangest things that they'd seen compared to what Mulder's mouth produced. "You've strayed from the subject, Mulder," Scully said, daring to ask him the question. "Have you just considered the possibility that this could be a reflection from something in this man's eyes? Something that isn't in the photograph? You know, it wouldn't hurt to look for the sensible scientific answer once in a while. Maybe Skinner would stop losing his hair so quick if you did." Mulder laughed quietly thinking that within two years, if his case load carried on building, then Skinner would be completely bald. "Yeah, maybe it is a reflection, that's why we've come to see Joe, if he thinks it's a reflection, then he'll tell us. If it's something else, he'll tell us that too. The thing about Joe is, he'll only tell you what he sees, and he won't make anything up just because you want to hear it. sometimes he's kept me from making the biggest fool of myself."

Scully wondered to herself why Joe couldn't work with Mulder all the time. She wondered about the possibility of asking Skinner if Joe could work with Mulder on some of their cases, just to give her a break. She never knew when she signed up for the F.B.I that listening to someone's theories day in and day out, especially when they were so far fetched as Mulder's, could be so mentally draining. She thought that sometimes she'd rather be doing background checks on people who borrowed Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' from the libraries in all of America, than listening to Mulder go on about how extra terrestrial life really did exist, and how there was a huge government cover up to prevent him from finding the truth and telling the world.

The thought in the back of Scully's mind had always been that if aliens really existed, why on Earth would they base their actions and appearances in America. Looking at a world map, surely Europe and Asia being all connected at some point, would look like the world's greatest power from outer space. So why not go there? She had often thought of putting this question to Mulder, but had always realised that she'd have to write out her theory and practise it word for word or Mulder would have an answer for everything.

Sometimes she wondered how his head hadn't exploded by now with all the activity that was going on in there. She wondered how he managed to switch off at night to get a good night's sleep, if he managed it at all. She thought that if it was herself that had to go through that, she'd probably end up in a mental health facility.


	14. Chapter 14

**~Chapter 14~**

_SG1 in Jack's room, planning their moves for the next day._

"So, say these photos are real, then what do we do?" asked Jonas, who was pacing around the room not knowing what else to do with himself, wondering if the colonel was thinking of just walking up to Mulder and asking for them.

"Well, we'll obviously have to look at our options. We could either tell them that they're a matter of national security, and demand to take them away, but that will be after he hears whatever it is that Joe tells him, and he's probably going to threaten to go public with the findings, and he wouldn't give them to us anyway, and the last thing we need is a fire fight… or…." Jack trailed off as he was trying to search his brain for an 'Or'.

"Or, we could just break in and take them, and go home, Sir" Sam offered, knowing that it wouldn't be very difficult breaking into any of the hotel rooms, they were old locks, no swipe card necessary and all she'd need was a nail file and a hair grip, all of which she had in her suitcase. In her time in the air force, she had become an established and achieved lock picker.

"Yes! I was just about to say that…" said Jack, pointing at her and moving his body to turn away from her to the rest of the team, making it obvious to the rest of them that he wasn't going to say anything of the sort and that he had in fact come up empty. "Good thinking Major."

"I don't know, I guess we'll have to play it by ear. See what this Joe guy comes up with." said Jack, sighing deeply, hoping that it would just be a reflection in the guy's eyes, and that they were just _really_ bad dressers. "Of course, on the other hand, if it's nothing, we can all go back to Cheyenne Mountain, after seeing the sights, and then get to work and start our next off world mission briefing. Still I guess this place makes a change from the grey walls of the base, huh Teal'c?"

"Indeed, O'Neill" agreed Teal'c taking in the surroundings of the hotel suite that was exactly like his own. Teal'c, not having his own house on Earth, had to live on the base, and although he had everything he needed; food, water, entertainment, a job and regular pay, he did have to live inside four walls that were the most miserable shade of grey known to man. However, Teal'c had always considered himself lucky, he had his privacy unlike when he was in the service of Apophis. He had lived in a dormitory for most of the year when they were in battle. It was very rare that he had the chance to go home to his son and his wife. Teal'c missed his son, he had missed out on most of his growing up due to coming to Earth to fight against the Goa'uld. He had not known it was possible to miss someone so much. As a sad expression fell upon Teal'c's face, Jonas tried to lift his spirits by changing the subject.

"Hey, so as it's early then, what do you say we go out for a walk, Teal'c? I've never seen New York before, and I'm sure there are maps downstairs for us to take in some local sites, what do you think?" asked Jonas, anxious to get out and explore the new city he was visiting and get some fresh air. Jonas had heard so much about the city from Sam, and from the television and the newspapers that he had wanted to visit it for some time, it would be great to actually see some of the most famous sights on Earth. He was looking forward to it.

"I am of the same mind, Jonas Quinn. It would be most interesting to learn more about New York." And the two left Sam and Jack in his room as they went to explore the city.

"Don't get into any trouble, Teal'c!" Jack called after them, smiling to himself and closed the door behind them.

"So, what are your ideas on this situation then, Major?" he asked Sam, who had made herself comfortable sitting in the big chair in the room.

"I'm hoping this is just nothing but a wild idea, but I know that in all reality it could just be possible that this is for real, sir. I mean, we didn't know that Seth was here for all these years, who's to say that a few of the other Goa'ulds that we thought were dead, or have never heard of, haven't been living here and existing through cults all this time as well? It's possible sir, we know that Daniel documented that hundreds of gou'alds had once inhabited this planet, taking the people to make slaves and, or Jaffa using the different diverse cultures to convince the people… this could be one of them." she said, dreading the thought, and knowing she wasn't going to get any thanks for saying it out loud.

"Yeah… that's about the size of it." said Jack, looking at her from his place on the edge of the bed. His mind racing with possible ways to deal with the problem.

"Well, this is an interesting situation we have here sir." said Sam, looking across at him. Jack wondered whether she was talking about the situation with Mulder or the situation between them. They both knew of each other's feelings for one another. During a visit from the Tok'ra it had been necessary for every member of the SG teams to submit to a sophisticated lie detector test, and because Jack and Sam had tried to hide their memories of what had happened on a mission, they had been thought to be Zatarc's, people programmed with a mission to kill someone opposing the Goa'uld.

It had almost got Jack killed, and Sam sedated for a long, long time until they had admitted to what had really happened on that mission. Sam had first realised that Jack cared for her more than as a workmate when they had got lost in the Antarctic, a few years ago. He had been almost dying and the last thing she heard him say was her name. He had been willing to sacrifice his own life for the chance for her to go to the surface and try to save herself. He was willing to be left there to die so she could live. She had realised that it was more than a passing interest when the armbands the Tok'ra had brought didn't work, and Jack had refused to leave her when she was trapped behind a shield and couldn't get out. Jack had admitted to the Zatarc detector that the reason he didn't leave was because he would have rather died himself than lose Sam, and that he cared about her, a lot more than he was supposed to. Sam had wanted to cry when he said that out loud.

There had been many times when they had been alone and one of them had brought the subject up of their feelings for each other, both of them realised that they couldn't keep dancing around the subject for ever, sooner or later they were going to have to address the issue.

"The thing with Mulder? Or.." he trailed off letting her know that the unmentionable topic was in the forefront of his mind.

"No I don't mean Mulder, the more interesting situation..." she said, hoping that one of these days God was going to implant a solution in her brain and she'd be able to come up with the answer.

"If I'd stayed retired, we could have had a decent chance of making this work, Sam." He said with a sigh.

"Jack," she said quietly as she got up from the chair and moved over to his side on the bed. His face lit up with the sound of her calling him by his first name, "If you'd stayed retired, we wouldn't have met in the first place," she said, always being logical.

"Oh, I think we would have, Sam, think of it as fate," he said as he leaned in and kissed her.


	15. Chapter 15

**~Chapter 15~**

_Mulder and Scully in Scully's room, talking over dinner._

"You know, Mulder, I really wish you'd told me about this trip sooner, there was a medical documentary on the Science channel I wanted to tape tonight." she told him, regretting that she hadn't had the time to programme her V.C.R.

"I'm sorry, Scully but I only got the photographs this morning. Hey you think that they have cable here?" he asked, looking around for the remote for the television.

"Probably not, but we can check, so long as you keep quiet and don't ask if it's real or not." she replied, remembering the last time she had wanted to watch something and he was around and how he had talked all the way through it, asking if it was real of if it had been just really good stage make up and great special effects.

"Ok, I promise, where's that remote?" he asked, mostly to himself as he searched the room and eventually found it on top of the television.

"Did you ask for a wakeup call in the morning for us, Mulder?" asked Scully, wondering if she was going to have to set her cellular phone alarm to wake herself up with.

"Um, yeah, I did." he told her as he played with the channels to get to the documentary Scully wanted to watch. "So we'll be able to catch some breakfast before going to see Joe, if you like." He told her, knowing that she didn't like to start the day on an empty stomach. She had always tried to instil into him the importance of breakfast, saying that the brain needed fuel just as much as the body and that they'd never solve any cases without some cereal. She had often wondered if the reason for Mulder's extreme explanations for some of their cases was because he practically lived on sunflower seeds. Scully had often wondered how Mulder had managed to live for so long without someone to look after him.

"Yeah, we'll have to have breakfast Mulder, you know how I can't go without my cereal. We'll have to find a dry cleaners as well, I'll need to get my suit cleaned for the day after tomorrow. Is it likely we'll be back in Washington by then, Mulder?" She asked, knowing that the answer would most probably be no.

"Not sure, we'll have to see what Joe comes up with on those photographs. Hopefully we'll have something to investigate." He replied, knowing that Scully would want to get back to the office even if it was to just do rather than be out here for longer than she had to be. He never really knew why Scully had such an opposition to the explanations he often gave for the events they witnessed, whether she was just sceptical by nature, or if it was her medical training, the scientist within. He had always had the thought in the back of his head that she refused to believe because she was so religious. A strong Catholic, Scully had always gone to church and a lot of her life revolved around her faith.

He had tried every way he could think of to convince her to see his point of view, and however much she professed to do so, he knew that deep down she was inwardly rolling her eyes towards the sky and asking God what she had done to deserve this lunatic for a partner, she went to church and confession, why her?

"What are you thinking about, Mulder?" Scully's voice brought him back to reality and from his train of thought.  
"Nothing much, just whether it's your nature to be sceptical or something they teach you in medical school."

"It's medical school, Mulder, they teach it in the first week… it's part of the government conspiracy. They've given up trying to cover things up, now they're just training people to be sceptical and not believe a word of it," she teased with a smile playing on her lips as she tried to keep a straight face. "Same with law school, today's lawyers are trained to be sceptical too."

"Very funny, Scully, but that might just be a possibility I'd not thought of, I'll have to ask Byers, Frohike and Langly if they've heard anything about it." He told her with a thoughtful look on his face that made Scully worry that he had actually taken her seriously on some unconscious level. He laughed out loud, reassuring her that he was joking, but it didn't stop Scully from wondering that if the theory was now doing the rounds in Mulder's brain and if he was trying to figure out how the government would make young impressionable minds sceptical without them noticing.

'Damn… now I'm doing it too.' She thought to herself, wishing that she'd never said anything. It was too easy for her to get caught up with this, even though she didn't want to be.

"Hey, I've found your documentary," Mulder said as he passed her the remote and made himself comfortable on her bed. He lay with his feet on the pillows, resting his weight on his arms with his head at the base of the bed watching the television. Scully lay beside him, her feet nowhere near the pillows as she was much shorter than Mulder, but her head level with his. She rested her head on his shoulder for a second, then turned to smile at him before turning the volume up on the remote so she could hear clearly.

She looked across at him and told him, "You know, I know you don't like squeamish things, Mulder, you don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"That's ok," he said aware of the fact that they didn't really get as much time away from work as they'd like just to hang out as friends, "I don't mind a bit of guts and blood in exchange for some good company."

"That's ok then, Mulder" she said.

"Hey, how about bowling next week?" he asked, thinking that he should really make the effort to spend more time with her.

"Sure, so long as we've got the time and we're not over flowing with work." She said, knowing that if Mulder could drag this case out he would, just to save on the paperwork.

"Well, if you're right, we'll go bowling as soon as we get back to D.C." he said.

"And if you're right, Mulder?" she asked, knowing the answer that was coming her way.

"Then we'll find the truth, Scully, and then we'll go bowling afterwards," he said with a smile in her direction knowing that she wouldn't like the sound of that.

"Oh brother!" she muttered, hoping he wouldn't hear.

"Cheer up, Scully, with any luck we'll find these 'people' quickly" he said, using his fingers to air quote, "And you might meet a cute detective," he teased.

"Mulder, just because you've got a one track mind you know, doesn't mean that everyone else does." She said, hating that he could see right through her sometimes. It had been quite a while since her workload had allowed Scully to go out and enjoy herself and meet men, let alone have a date and even a relationship and find herself a boyfriend. She had often wondered if she would ever have a relationship with any other man than Mulder, in any other form than professional. "Lets just watch the TV." She told him, as the opening credits finished.

"Ok, Scully, I'm sorry." He said, genuinely sorry that he had teased her. As he turned his head to smile at her, she knew they were going to have a nice night.


	16. Chapter 16

**~Chapter 16~**

_Sam and Jack in Jack's room, still sitting on his bed_

"Wow, where did that come from?" Sam asked Jack as she pulled away from his face, slowly.

"You've not thought that's been coming for a while?" he asked, puzzled and wondering if he'd seriously overstepped a mark, his heard pounding with fear. He could have sworn that she felt the same about him as he did about her.

"Yeah, it's been coming for a long time, Jack, but I just wasn't expecting it right this minute." She told him, not moving much further back than she already had. She knew about his feelings for her, and she was more than sure that he knew that she liked him too, but she hadn't expected him to kiss her like that. Not that she hadn't enjoyed it, it was pretty much known by everyone on the base, the other members of SG1 and General Hammond in particular that there was something between herself and Jack and that it was bound to escalate someday, she just hadn't thought it would have been today. Not when they were in this much potential trouble with the situation they had. It had caught her quite by surprise. She had expected they might be able to finally have a good talk about the way they felt about each other and what they were going to do about it, but the kiss had shocked her more than slightly.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I didn't mean to over step the mark, I'm sorry," he said with a look in his eyes that made her want to melt. "I won't ever do it again if you don't want me to."

Her mind raced at the possibilities of them getting caught or found out and the impending court martial that would soon follow. Her head was full of thoughts, good and bad, about their situation, their feelings and their relationship. "Jack…" she paused, trying to find the right words to say, "It's not that I don't like you, I do, you know what I think of you, and how I feel about you. It's just we have to be careful in case we get caught."

"I know, but there's no-one in here but you and me, and even if Teal'c and Jonas were to come back, they'd never say anything." Jack immediately regretted the words that had come out of his mouth, he thought it made it sound like he was trying to pressure her into something that she might not have wanted to get into, not that he was sure she wouldn't want to.

Shaking the thought out of his head, realising that Sam wouldn't think that was his intention, he continued, "I know Jonas is kinda new on the team, but he's smart. Smarter than me, maybe even smarter than Daniel was…" he trailed off wondering why he'd brought up Daniel's name. That was bound to put a dampener on the moment. They both missed him, and even though Jack and he had been like brothers, Sam and Daniel had found a connection immediately upon meeting and she missed him terribly.

They were more than just friends, they were never romantically involved, but there was more there than just a basic friendship. In a way they were like brother and sister, but Jack had always got the impression that if Daniel hadn't been married, and Sam hadn't met Jack, then there might have been something romantic between the two of them. When Daniel died, Sam had wept. Not just cried, wept.

Jack remembered how he had tried to console her, trying to fight back his own tears to be strong for her, and how nothing had worked, how there had been no words to comfort her and how she had wept for hours till she eventually fell asleep at his house on his sofa through exhaustion. He knew it was selfish, but he was glad he had been able to be there for her.

In the beginning, Jack had thought Daniel was a dweeb, a geek, he didn't have much time for him. It had taken Jack quite some time to get used to Daniel, and a lot longer for him to like him. He had eventually grown on Jack, despite his sneezing and long sentences, and had earned his respect when Daniel had got them safely home through the Stargate on their very first mission.

"I know, Daniel was smart, maybe even smarter than me, but Jonas just learns so quickly" Sam said, bringing Jack's mind to the moment again instead of wandering off thinking of sadder things.

"Which makes me look even more dumb," he said sadly.

"You're not dumb, Jack!" Sam told him wondering how someone with such a great military mind could think so little of himself. She knew that he had a different way of looking at things, a simpler way, but there had been many occasions when his simpler view of events had saved them.

It had saved Teal'c symbiote when they had tried to keep it alive. She and Dr Frasier had recreated all the conditions of Teal'c's pouch, but the larval Goa'uld had still been dying. It had been Jack's suggestion to 'Zap it back to life like on E.R.' that had made the two women realise that they had overlooked the natural flow of current in the body and they had saved the symbiote.

"Just because you didn't go to three different universities, and you weren't educated in different countries, and you don't have a couple of thousand years of advanced DNA doesn't mean you're dumb. You've got a fantastic strategically orientated mind, Jack, you're a lot more competent in the field than I am. I'll never make it to colonel on the basis of my field work. You got there just because you've got a fantastic mind for battle and what's best for your unit. We owe you our lives a million times over. You have to know that" she said, trying to make him see sense.

"Yeah, well, it saves the paperwork." Jack said modestly, not being one to like attention drawn to his heroism. Jack had been in the military a long time, received a lot of medals, but was still humble, modest and had great humility about his actions. He had never been one to boast, instead he made funny comments about what he had done and just laughed it off and tried not to think about it. In actual fact, Jack was quite shy, he didn't like attention like that being drawn to him. He had never felt the need to be the centre of attention.

Sam laughed gently at his joke and looked at him with intensity. She could see the colour rising in his cheeks as he blushed slightly at the thought of himself being a hero and saving their lives over and over again.

He turned his head to look at her and her eye met his as he caught her looking at him, and it was her turn to blush.

"Sam, I know you worry about getting a court martial if we got found out, but it's not like either one of us is gonna go around blurting it out. If you don't wanna do this, that's fine, for whatever reason, but please just know that I think you're amazing." He said quietly as he moved his hands to her face and held it looking towards his own to accentuate his point.

"I know, Jack, I know. And the feeling is mutual, and I do really, really, really like you, and I could fall head over heals for you if we carry this on for one more minute…" she trailed off as she looked into his eyes enjoying his hands being on her face.

"Then I guess I'd just have to save you all over again then wouldn't I?" he told her as his lips met hers again and all thoughts left their heads and they just concentrated on each other from that moment till the next morning when they woke up lying in each other's arms.


	17. Chapter 17

**~Chapter 17~**

_Mulder and Scully, at breakfast in the dining room of the hotel._

"So, Mulder, you have the menu in front of you, please tell me you're going to order something from it." Scully said with a sigh as she often had at breakfast time with Mulder. The man ate as little as possible in the mornings, she didn't know why, and just snacked on sunflower seeds all day. She didn't know how he managed to live in any form representing health. She had become his doctor after his own had retired. She was always surprised that all his blood tests and physicals showed that he was a healthy person.

"Maybe a glass of orange juice." He said as he browsed over the menu in his hands. The hotel did have a lot to offer. There was the usual range of croissants and bread rolls, cheeses and fresh meats, and all the cereals, muffins and different flavoured yoghurts that Mulder could think of. Then in honour of the British people staying at the hotel for a wedding, they also offered an English breakfast, something he hadn't had since his days at university over there. "Actually, I'm going to have a reminiscent breakfast today, Scully," he told her with an amused tone in his voice as if he knew it would shock her that he was going to eat bacon and eggs and tomatoes with toast.

"A what?" she asked, puzzled and slightly worried by his tone of voice.

"I'm going to have an English breakfast, I've not had one since I was in university over there, and that was usually to try and soak up a hangover, so it'll be nice to eat it for pleasure, rather than as a cure." And he signalled the waiter to come over to the table and take their order.

"Interesting choice, Mulder, better than your usual minimal intake, I must say" she said, amazed that he was eating as she browsed over the menu herself quickly so she'd be ready to give the waiter their order. Not that her breakfast would be any different than usual, cereal and a glass of juice with a coffee, one sugar and skimmed milk. It had to be said, Scully was definitely one for routine. She did like to have everything happen in order, and for as long as she could remember in her adult life, she had always had cereal, orange juice and coffee with one sugar and skimmed milk for breakfast. Every now and then she would treat herself at the weekend and have a slice of toast, but only if she was going to visit her mother and was driving the long journey and knew she'd not have the chance for lunch. Her friends had often commented that her routine and lack of variety was bordering on the neurotic, but it didn't bother Scully.

As the waiter took their orders and scuttled off to the kitchen looking like he'd never heard of an English breakfast before and like he thought it might be a problem to cook it, Mulder took the chance to look around the restaurant at the other guests. Most were older couples, senior citizens on their way somewhere, there was a large group at one table, and they all seemed to want the same thing, but kept changing their minds and the waitress was having problems counting how many people wanted what. There were a few young couples, one of which looked like they were on their honeymoon, there was barely enough room for the table between them, in fact, he thought, they'd probably prefer it if the table was moved. Mulder wondered why they'd bothered to come out of their room.

As he glanced around the rest of the room just about to bring his gaze back to Scully, a group of four walked into the room. Three men and one woman. The woman, he noticed, was very pretty, and seemed to be standing a little too close to the guy with the greying hair to just be business associates with or whatever. Mulder assumed they were together. The guy with the blonde hair and the smiling face just looked happy to be at breakfast, which was pleasing for some, Mulder thought to himself, but he didn't share the sentiment. But the big guy… wow… Mulder had never seen someone so big! He walked with his hands behind his back in very old fashioned clothes for someone as young as he appeared to be, Mulder would have guessed at late 20s or early 30s, and even bowed slightly to the waiter who showed them to their table in the corner of the dining room. He sat down last, and for a big guy, Mulder thought, he moved very gracefully. He didn't so much walk as glide, and he didn't so much sit as just move to a different level of height. It occurred to Mulder that he looked like a cross between a ballet dancer and a football player with his grace and size. The man looked like he could have been a professional wrestler. Still though, Mulder thought to himself,

'I wouldn't like to bump into him on a dark night, even with my gun.'

Scully followed Mulder's gaze over to the corner of the room as she had noticed that he had been quiet for some time as she'd had a quick look over the lunch menu, just to see what they'd be missing. She saw the group of four in the corner that Mulder seemed fixated on. She spotted the woman immediately and gave Mulder a stern look. "You can forget asking her out, Mulder, she's obviously taken!" she told him firmly, implying that she and the man with they greying hair were obviously a couple. They were sitting closer to each other than anyone else in the restaurant, except maybe the newly weds who were practically clambering over the table to be in contact with one another. Scully also wondered why they had even thought of coming out of their room, and that maybe displays of affection should be left to more private surroundings. Not everyone wanted to see things like that whilst having their breakfast. Or maybe it was just her cynical single side showing. The green eyed monster rearing its head and reminding her of how long it was since she had been one half of a couple.

"No, I was looking at the big guy… he looks scary, huh?" Mulder said nodding his head towards the subject in question.

"Yeah, I guess so, he's big… how tall is he? About 6'5?"

"Yeah… a lot taller than me," Mulder said distractedly wondering how the man had managed to get arms that big, and why he was wearing a baseball cap to breakfast. It didn't really go with the rest of his old fashioned clothes. Mulder wondered why shops still sold clothes like that anymore. Or if he had indeed got them from a shop, maybe he had inherited them from a relative who had died sometime in the 50s. Or maybe the big guy was just a retro orientated dresser. Some people liked their 70s clothes, the flairs and all the rest of it, maybe this man liked 50s clothes. It was just the baseball cap that made him look odd.

Interrupting their thoughts was the waiter with their breakfasts and as they began eating, Scully taking note of just how much food Mulder was taking in just in case he got car sick later on, they soon forgot about the table of four.

"Mulder, are we leaving for Joe's office straight away after breakfast then?" she asked him just as he'd put a sausage into his mouth.

"Yeah," he said, not bothering to swallow first, "The early bird, Scully, it catches the worm." He replied.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you table manners, Mulder?" She asked with exasperation making note not to ask him any questions at meal times again.


	18. Chapter 18

**~Chapter 18~**

_Sam and Jack after the previous night, meeting Teal'c and Jonas for breakfast_

Sam awoke that morning to find out that it hadn't been a dream. Jack was lying behind her, his arm protectively around her body, his face buried in her neck. She could feel his warm breath on her skin and she smiled to herself. She looked at the bedside alarm clock, it said 6:45, 'Time to get up' she thought with a quiet sigh to herself as she felt she could stay in bed for the rest of the day, gently she touched Jack's arm, trying to move herself from underneath so she could jump into the shower.

Stirring with her movements, he woke up as she got out of bed, and looked at her and smiled. "Good morning, Major" he said grinning at her.

"Good morning" she said as she bent over and leant in for a kiss from him.

He pulled her back into bed with him for a longer kiss than she had intended. Rolling onto her so she couldn't leave, he looked down at her face and moved her hair from her eyes. Smiling, he kissed her again, as he held her face with his hands.

Reluctantly she pushed him away from her mouth. "It's time to get up, Jack" she said with a groan as she pushed him off her so her so he was lying next to her. She looked across at him, "I'm just going to jump in the shower across the hall in my room and get ready. Might as well make some use of it," she joked. "Meet you in ten minutes?"

"You sure will," he said smiling at her as she put her clothes back on. As he got up to get into his own shower she unlocked the door and looked outside, turned and waved at him before disappearing across the hall into her own room.

Ten minutes later, right on the dot, she was knocking on the door. "Sir, are you ready?" she shouted through the door.

As Jack opened it he replied, "You know, you don't have to call me s…." he trailed off, his face falling from a smile, before he said anything else when he saw Teal'c and Jonas standing with her. He looked at Sam, who gave him a meaningful look back. "You know, you don't have to call me sir on this mission, Major, it'll seem less obvious that we're military if we all use first names," he told them.

"We'll have to call you, 'T', Teal'c," said Jack, realising that if they were to use his first name, it might attract just as much attention to him as the gold emblem on the middle of the Jaffa's forehead that Apophis had branded on him when he had been his first prime.

"That will be very odd, O'Neill" Teal'c said, in his usual cheerful voice. He had never once called O'Neill Jack. Not once. He'd always just naturally called him O'Neill. He had never been told not to, and he'd not really thought that when Teal'c first came to Earth after absconding and defecting from Apophis that there was an alternative. The only time that they had ever been known by different names was when they had gone undercover, in which Teal'c had been called 'Murray' and found out about the joys of vibrating beds.

Teal'c recalled how he had repeatedly asked O'Neill for more quarters when the bed had stopped, and how O'Neill had seemed both bewildered and annoyed at the same time. But for someone who's home planet did not have such luxuries, even though they were far more advanced technologically than the Tau'ri, or Earth as the people who lived on the planet called it, it was a pleasure to discover new things, like vibrating beds and escalators and elevators. True, the Goa'uld ships had ring transporters, but they were not as optically pleasing as escalators. And ring transporters didn't have that nice music inside them like elevators did.

"Yeah," agreed Jonas, "I've never called you anything but Colonel O'Neill… you'll just have to remind me if I slip up." He said, hoping that he wouldn't slip up. He knew that although O'Neill had accepted him on a certain level, that he was still not 'one of the gang' quite yet. And that any mistakes would be pointed out very quickly. He knew he still wasn't clicked within the group. He still had to earn a few of his remaining stripes. He had not known Daniel Jackson like the rest of the team, but he knew that he was a special man, and had a close bond with the other members. He knew that O'Neill missed him even though all they had done when they were on Jonas's home world was argue. Apparently they had used to do that a lot. Sam had let Jonas know of most of the history between Daniel and O'Neill. And although Jonas had never wanted to take Daniel Jackson's place, he had a feeling that O'Neill thought that was his intention. A case of the crossed wires he though. Hopefully it'd be sorted out soon enough though. But Jonas also knew that Daniel Jackson had never once called Colonel O'Neill anything other but Jack. And Colonel O'Neill had always called Dr Jackson, Daniel. Jonas knew it would be a long time before it required a mission for him to call Colonel O'Neill, Jack in every day conversation. Jonas hoped that day would be a little sooner than he anticipated.

"Sure, Jack, no problem" said Sam, wondering how she was ever going to call him anything other than Jack ever again after the events of the previous night. It was certainly going to be hard when they got back to the base to maintain a professional relationship. She didn't know how they were going to manage

it, at the same time as seeing each other. The problems were endless. They could get caught, there could be a court martial for each of them, their careers could be over in the blink of an eye if they weren't careful and kept a careful balance between work and their personal lives. They would also have to remember to use protocol when they were at work, and it was certainly going to be difficult getting any work done when they were on off world missions. The temptation would be great, especially as they wouldn't have any superiors breathing down their necks. They would just have to try to remain professional.

As they walked into the dining room they were shown to their table and they sat down. "Don't look now, but I think we're being watched" said Jack as they all picked up menu's and browsed over them.

"Where?" asked Sam, who was sitting facing the same direction as Jack and thought it would be less obvious for her to sneak a glance rather than have Teal'c or Jonas turn round in their seats.

"Man and woman over there by the big plant, both in suits, seem to be looking at Teal'c." Jack said turning to face Sam so they didn't look like they were talking about their observers. Teal'c tilted his head and raised his eyebrow in a puzzled manner, wondering why he was receiving the attention of two perfect strangers.

"Jack, that's them." Sam said, urgently.

"Them?"

"Mulder and Scully, Jack, that's them." She said, turning back to her menu so she didn't seem like she was doing anything odd.

"Well, well, well," said Jack smiling to the rest of the group and trying to act naturally, "Looks like we've caught ourselves two F.B.I. agents."


	19. Chapter 19

**~Chapter 19~**

_Mulder and Scully in Joe's office._

Mulder knocked three times on the office door and smiled at Scully as they waited outside for Joe to answer. Rocking back and forth on his toes, Mulder became slightly anxious at how long it was taking Joe to answer the door to his office. The thought that Joe had been abducted flew across his mind for a brief second before he mentally told himself off for jumping to conclusions and taking his theories one step too far.

"Maybe he's late for work?" Scully suggested, in what was an attempt at a helpful tone of voice.

"Yeah maybe…" Mulder replied as the door was swung open before them by Joe.

"Sorry I took so long, I was on the phone." He told them apologetically. Motioning them to enter his office, he stood aside and let Scully past first. Mulder followed glimpsing around the office he was walking into. Not much had changed from the night before, a few boxes had appeared, a few files and folders had been moved, but nothing out of the ordinary. Mulder wondered why he had thought to check if anything was different. He thought maybe he was becoming a little paranoid even for him, or maybe, he told himself unconvincingly, it was the training in the academy that had instilled into him the importance of noticing one's surroundings. Or maybe it was a combination of the two.

"So, did you find anything interesting in the photos?" Mulder asked, shaking the thoughts from his head, always wanting to get down to business as soon as possible.

"Yeah, the computer programs came up with something good." Joe replied, not knowing whether it was a great idea to set Mulder on this trail.

"Like what?" asked Scully, dreading the answer but not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

"They're not fakes" said Joe, matter-of-factly.

"You're kidding?!" exclaimed Mulder, wondering if this was a dream or if all his Hanukah's had come at once, his eyes wide with excitement like a little kid who'd just been let loose in a toy store. He was so pleased that Scully was here to hear this, that he wasn't the only one to witness the news, and that he would also have the opportunity to gloat like he never had before later on, and that she wouldn't have the opportunity to accuse him of exaggerating the details as often had been her theories in past times.

"What do you mean, they're not fakes?" Scully asked. "Surely then, if they are real, it's just light reflected in their eyes somehow." She posed her theory scientifically, hoping that Joe would confirm it.

"No, if you see here," Joe said, showing them both a sample of the photographs that had been enhanced several thousand times, "The eyes… if it was a reflection it would be just inside the black bit, the pupil, but the glow is around the whole of the eye, leaving only a little of the white visible. These are not fakes, whatever caused this glow was not from an outside source… this is from the person."

Mulder's face lit up. Scully's face dropped. The two of them had been hoping for different results, but Mulder had got his wish.

"I'll have a look in my medical books for any eye diseases that cause the subject's eyes to glow shall I Mulder?" Scully asked, resignedly.

"Scully, you and I both know there's no such thing as 'Glowing eye syndrome'," he said patronisingly, giving her a look to match the tone of his voice. Scully was less than impressed that his gloating had started so soon.

"Well, I'm not an optician, but I might find something," she replied, hoping to God that she would. She disliked Mulder to be right about any of his supernatural theories, or even close to being right. There were a number of reasons, first of all she never got a moments peace as he was always mentioning to her that he'd been correct. And secondly, he always tried to expand whichever case they were working on at the time to every other 'X File' they had in the office. It was his way of killing two birds with one stone, to see if the same explanation could be put to another case. She could understand the logic of that, but she could never quite come to terms with accepting the theories he put forward. She didn't like it when Mulder was right.

Joe stood there looking at the two F.B.I agents, wondering how any two people with such differing opinions could ever get along as friends. They seemed so different, like chalk and cheese. He wondered if they were indeed friends, or if they just had to work together. It was a strange thought that Mulder and Scully might be more than just colleagues at work. He couldn't really see them going out and having fun as friends, he pictured too many arguments for anything like that.

He also wondered if it was obvious that he'd had visitors last night, wanting to know about the photos that Mulder had brought him. He was trying really hard to remain calm and not suspicious, but he wasn't sure how well it was working. The last thing Joe wanted to do was to upset the big guy who'd given him nightmares and horrible visions of his own death since he'd set foot in Joe's office. Joe had never been known for his ability to stick up for himself, or win any fights, or even get to throw a defensive punch in one. He had been somewhat of a geek at school, always picked on by the cool kids, but was still too nerdy for the real nerds. It seemed even they had standards for coolness. He had tried so hard to be accepted by a lot of different groups in high school, but to no avail. He had ended up being a loner, but not through choice. He hadn't had many friends at all in high school, and it wasn't till he went to college that he'd been able to mingle with people like him, and some people not so much like him, for example, Mulder. Joe remembered how even in their most liberal of classes, the ideas he came out with seemed much too far out and relaxed for some of the members, even Joe. Still, Mulder had always been a good friend, had helped Joe move house, and had set him up on a few really nice dates with women he would never have had the nerve to talk to on his own. The thought of asking Mulder to set him up with Scully crossed Joe's mind, and then he instantly dismissed it, assuming that she'd never even look twice at him and that she was only here because Mulder had dragged her kicking and screaming. The thought that Mulder might want to keep Scully for himself also crossed his mind, they might not get on all that well when it came to Mulder's ideas, but Mulder would have to be blind not to see how good looking Scully was. Joe thought better of it, realising that Washington D.C. was a long way away, and the prospect of a regular dating relationship was near impossible.

"You'll never get anything. No way Scully!" Mulder exclaimed. "Thanks a million, Joe, I owe you one buddy!" And with that Mulder left the office, followed by the reluctant Scully.

"Bye Joe," she said with a smile.

"Bye guys, have fun with those!" he said, wondering what Scully's first name was despite himself, and if there was actually anything between her and Mulder.


	20. Chapter 20

**~Chapter 20~**

_SG1 outside Joe's office._

Joe almost jumped out of his seat by his computer when his silence was interrupted by the loud knock at the door. At once he knew who it was on the other side, and who had been responsible for almost knocking the three inch thick piece of wood off its hinges and the frosted glass from its hole. Joe knew that it had to be the big guy that had terrified him the night before. "Come in, it's open" he said trying to force confidence into his voice, rather unsuccessfully. As the door opened, the big guy entered first and Joe almost fell off his stool by his computer.

"Hi there," said Jack, "Remember us?" he said from behind Teal'c. As he stood to the side of him, the rest of SG1 followed suit and managed to cover half the office whilst still being in front of the doorway at the same time.

Sam entered last and shut the door behind her. "How you doing, Joe?" she asked with a smile, giving Joe a sense of uneasiness.

"Hey, um, yeah… I'm fine, thanks, yourselves?" he asked, trying not to stutter with nerves in front of the only seemingly nice member of the group that he knew nothing about, but couldn't help wishing he knew a bit more about. She was a lot taller than Scully, and she too looked like she could crush him with her little finger, if she felt like it, but she was good looking too. Joe had always tried to keep his mind off women, but the more he tried the worse it got. He never liked to think about what he didn't have and couldn't get without help from a friend like Mulder.

"Yeah, we're good," Jack said, taking a look around the office to see if anything had changed. "We were just wondering if you managed to get a copy of those photos and if you found anything out about them." Jack turned his full attention to Joe, making the man move nervously on his stool.

"Um, well, they were very interesting actually."

"How so?" asked Teal'c, frightening the life out of Joe once more. His calm low voice making him more terrifying than if he had bellowed at the top of his voice.

"Well, they're not fakes, for starters. In fact, there was something interesting about they eyes. Look at this image that I've blown up" he said, giving the group a copy of one of the photographs out of the folder he'd brought from the filing cabinet to the table in front of them.

"Mulder's partner, Scully, asked if it could just be light reflecting in the eyes from another source, but if you notice, the reflection would just be in the pupil, but this is more of a glow, that surrounds the whole eye, not just the centre. She's gone off to look and see if there's an eye disease that causes this."

"That's what we thought it might have been" said Jack, looking with purpose at Sam to come out with a very technical response.

"Yeah, there's been a medical branch of a university, which shall remain nameless, that's been doing work on cataract operations, and they denied any side effects, and that's one of the things we're investigating… we needed proof, and now we have it. Thank you Joe!" she smiled widely at him, hoping that he bought the story.

"Forgive me for asking," Joe said with caution, "But what has this got to do with the Air Force?"

'Damn' thought Jack to himself, 'I never should have told him where we were from.

"Well, the people who were doing these experiments stole equipment from the Air Force," Jonas told him, "That's why we're after them. If we can't pin anything on them, the F.B.I can get them with an ethical charge."

"Oh right, so you're working with Mulder and Scully?" asked Joe, wondering why they had both come separately if they were working on the same project, and more importantly why they had been so insistent that Mulder and Scully not know about their being there and asking for his help.

"Not quite, we've got different interests in this case, we're merely after our missing equipment, and charging these people with theft. The ethical stuff we leave to the public sector, so the papers can print the government has a moral victory." Said Sam.

"I see," said Joe not knowing if he believed them or not, but thought it was in his best interests to do so, and even if he didn't believe them fully, to at least act like he did, like he bought their story.

"Thanks Joe, oh and remember, not a word to anyone, ok?" asked Jack, knowing that even if the story did leak, then no-one would really pay attention.

"Yeah, sure. Hey, do you want the disk with the photos on too?" questioned Joe, thinking it would be safer if he had nothing more to do with it, hoping that this would indeed be the last he would hear about the matter.

"Yeah, that'd be good, thanks Joe!" said Jonas, nodding at him and smiling, taking the disc off Joe and wondering why he hadn't thought to ask for it.

"Goodbye Joe" said Teal'c bowing slightly before turning to leave, followed by the others.

As they stepped outside of the building and got into their car, the members of SG1 gave each other worried looks.

"Well, Jack, we were right after all. It looks like we have got a Goa'uld on the planet, with supporting Jaffa according to these photographs." Sam said solemnly.

"Yeah, we'd better call Hammond and see if we can get something sorted with some back up once we find out where these were taken." He replied, going into business mode.

"We'll email the copies to the base and get the geographical experts on it straight away, Colonel… I mean, Jack" said Jonas, his mind racing with ideas, searching for ways to find where and when the photograph was taken, hoping that they could stop this Goa'uld from causing serious trouble.

"Yeah, good idea," replied Jack, "Maybe we'll get a head start on Mulder and Scully, we're bound to have better facilities than them."

"Yes we do," Sam told him, knowing full well that it would be at least thirty years before any non-military agencies got their hands on her computers.

"We can do searches on the weather as well," said Jonas, "Once the geographical experts have come up with a narrower selection of places these could have been taken, we can search for matching weather conditions from the photograph which might narrow it down for us a bit."

"Yeah, unless this is the middle of some desert," said Jack, not getting his hopes up too soon till they had some solid possibilities or results. "We'll be back to square one if this is in the middle of Nevada or somewhere. So much for our few days off and seeing the sights!" His tone one of regret.

"We shall have to wait and see, Jack," said Teal'c, having taken everything in and noticed the look of apprehension on Jack's face about their guarantees of finding where the pictures were taken. He hoped they would be successful in finding the Goa'uld, the last thing he wanted for this world was the same thing that happened to his own, to be over run and controlled by parasites.


	21. Chapter 21

**~Chapter 21~**

_Mulder and Scully on the way back to the hotel. Mulder driving_

Mulder looked over at Scully as she sat down in the car, with a contented grin on his face. Evidently he was very pleased with himself. He hadn't even waited to get out of company before he had started his gloating. And now he sat next to Scully grinning like a Cheshire cat, looking very happy. In fact he looked positively elated. Scully was less than impressed.

"Say it." she said, resignedly, rolling her eyes knowing that a huge amount of gloating was coming her way.

"Say what?" he replied with mock shock, shaking his head slightly and holding his hands up in front of him.

"'I told you so' Mulder, you know you want to say it."

"I would not!"

"Yes you would!" she exclaimed, not believing how he could claim otherwise, but knowing this was all part of his little bit of teasing that he evidently thought she deserved.

"Ok, I told you so, Scully." Mulder replied in a tone that dripped with self-satisfaction, with the smile on his face remaining, to match, and that made Scully cringe out of self-sympathy. She knew she was going to hear nothing but the fact that he had been right all along tonight, and probably for the next three months too.

"So what is your conclusion from what Joe told us, then, oh wise one?" She asked, knowing that she shouldn't be, but if she didn't ask, he was going to tell her anyway. It was probably better to ask, he might go easy on her if she showed a little bit of interest.

"Aliens" he said, summing up his conclusion in the one word.

"Yeah, I'm sure Skinner's gonna like that report, Mulder!" she said facetiously.

"I'm sure he will, it'll probably be easier on him than any of my usual long winded reports, huh, Scully?" he said with the same silly grin on his face. She elbowed him in the ribs, for being right and for being a pain in the ass about it. She hated it when Mulder felt the need to be smug. It didn't last the short length of time that normal people were smug for, he didn't stop it out of politeness like the rest of society, he carried on till someone shouted at him.

"Watch out, Scully, we don't want a car crash."

"We do if it'll wipe that grin off your face." She muttered under her breath. "Well, just don't be too sure about yourself yet, Mulder, I've got medical books to research through, for all you know this could be a condition that this man suffers from." She said, knowing that it was only the slightest possibility that she'd have anything in her dated books. She'd have to get on to the Internet and call some of her old med school colleagues to see if they'd ever seen symptoms like this. Her mind was racing with ideas to find out information, and suggestions were going through her head from her medical days as to what could cause a condition like this when Mulder interrupted her thoughts.

"Clutching at straws?" he asked, his voice filled with patronising qualities.

"No." she replied defiantly.

"Ok, Scully, whatever." He said as he turned the radio on and began singing along, distinctly out of tune, which he knew annoyed Scully. It had annoyed her so much on one trip they had gone on, that she'd even offered to buy him singing lessons for his birthday to better his voice, make it in tune, and ease the pain on her ears that he inflicted. The thing that annoyed her the most, was that he wouldn't just sing along to one song, it'd be about half an hour's worth of music. The worst she'd ever heard was his attempts to sing along to country and western music. The high notes were never the great points of the private concerts. If this was what he was like in the car, she thought, what would he be like in the shower? Thank goodness they always had separate rooms in hotels.

"Where are we going now then, Mulder?" she asked, trying to get him to talk and not sing.

"Back to the hotel to get our things, and then back to the office in D.C." he told her "We have to find out where these photos were taken" he said, ceasing singing and wondering how they were going to find that out as there'd been no return address on the envelope and no note as to who'd sent them, or where they'd been taken, or even which country they'd been taken in. This was going to be very difficult. Mulder's mind began searching for ways to find where the photograph was taken. He would have to get them all under the magnifying glass when he got back to look for addresses or local signposts in the photograph with details of names of places on that couldn't be read without help.

"And how are you going to do that, Mulder?" Scully asked, curiously, knowing that he hadn't really got a one hundred percent guaranteed way of finding out.

"That's why we put the 'F' in 'F.B.I.' Scully…" he told her.

"And what does the 'F' stand for?" she asked, hoping it wasn't something rude.

"Finding out.." he said, suddenly realising that was two words and that it didn't quite work. The look on his face was one of confusion and slight embarrassment. He wasn't all that bothered about it, he and Scully were fairly comfortable around each other, they knew they didn't have to be perfect all the time, that was the great thing about their friendship, a weakness in one of them, was made up for by a strength in the other. They were complete opposites, but they made a great team. He brought a wider scope of explanations to their work, and she brought knowledge, science and logic to their cases. It worked out for the best all round, most of the time.

Scully looked over at him and laughed at his mistake, knowing that he wouldn't feel all that embarrassed as it wasn't that much of a mistake.

"Are you laughing at me?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and faking a hurt look on his face.

"Me? Would I?"

"Yes!" he replied nodding his head with a frown and a tone of defiance in his voice.

"I would not." She replied, still laughing at him. "Only when something was really funny and you deserve it cos you've been mean to me." She conceded laughing even louder, unable to help herself, at the look on his face which was now a mixture of hurt, defiance and determination to prove her wrong. She knew she was in for a long ride home on the plane.

"Come on, Scully, lets get packed and go home," he said as they turned into the car park for the hotel. Scully switched off the radio and got out of the car.

Mulder gave her a funny look wondering why she didn't like his singing and locked the car and walked into the hotel.

"It won't take me five minutes Mulder, I'll be finished before you."

"What makes you think you'll be finished before me?" He asked, still defiant since his mistake in the car.

"Call it a hunch." She replied, knowing that she really shouldn't have said that.

"Hint of telepathy there, Scully?" he asked, "Are you saying you have the ability to predict the future?" She gave him a stern look in return.


	22. Chapter 22

**~Chapter 22~**

_SG1 back at the hotel_

The ride back to the hotel in the car had been quiet. Sam had been driving and only the quiet sound of the radio in the background had broken the silence.

All of the members of SG1 had been silent in deep contemplation. The ramifications of what Joe had found in the photos had proved to be their worst nightmare. The presence of a Goa'uld on the planet, and a following of what were probably Jaffa out in public and not being too worried as to not let their identity being seen by letting their anger surface so much that the Goa'uld's had glowed. This was not a good situation. In fact it was pretty much the worst case scenario that anyone could have ever thought of.

"I'll call Hammond" Jack said as they entered the hotel, picked up their keys from reception and rode up in the elevator to their floor.

"General Hammond should be informed of the situation immediately" Teal'c said, his voice more solemn than usual. Jack hadn't thought that possible, but apparently it was. Jack had always thought that Teal'c sounded like a cross between a really strict judge and 'The Undertaker' from the pro wrestling on the T.V.

"Yeah, this is not good, not good at all." Said Jonas, repeating the sentiment out loud that they had all be thinking to themselves.

"I'll email a copy of the photos to the lab and they can get to work on it straight away. I don't think the F.B.I. have the same resources as us, so we might be able to get a head start on Mulder and Scully." Sam said, repeating the earlier plan now that she'd had time to think about it, her mind still racing and searching with and for more ideas and trying to formulate a plan to get her people working on the photographs as soon as they could.

"The weather people would also be a good idea, Sam, have a look at the weather around the world, somewhere that matched the weather in the pictures." Jack told her, backing up the suggestion of earlier. "I'll tell Hammond what ideas we've come up with so far, having the geographical people look at the pictures, and comparing the weather." His mind was still also racing for a more efficient plan and more effective methods to find out where the photographs were taken. Jack always got infuriated in situations like this, he had one good thought or idea suggested to him, and that was all that could stay in his head, it was like his mind had tunnel vision sometimes. He had often wished he could have been as intellectual as Sam and Jonas and especially as much of a quick learner as Daniel had been.

"It's just a shame we don't have a time frame," said Jonas, bringing up an issue none of the others had thought of.  
"What do you mean?" asked Jack, suddenly finding a spanner thrown into the works. Jack began to panic, the thought hadn't occurred to him that these photographs might not be recent. He began to get confused about the plan, whether they were going to be able to follow the options they had laid out and gone over. He began to be extremely worried.

"Well, we have no idea when these photos were taken, Jack." He said, with a regretful tone in his voice. Jonas didn't like to cause disruptions, but he had thought that it was best to point this out rather than save them all going on a wild goose chase.

"You have a point there, Jonas. We don't know how long this photo was taken, or how long it took someone to send it to Mulder, or how long he was sitting on it before he got it investigated." Said Sam, wondering how they were going to get any further than square one. The situation had just gone from bad to a hell of a lot worse. This was a 'Curl up and die now' scenario, rather than just worst case. Sam began to ask herself just how the hell they were going to get themselves out of this situation.

"Well, having read up on our man Mulder," Jack said, grasping at straws, "I think we can assume that he investigated it as soon as he got it. So that narrows it down a bit. And let's say you took these photos of a nice day out with the family, and it takes you about a week or so to get them into the photo shop to get them developed, so that's about a week, week and a half maybe. Now, that gives us a time frame of about two to three weeks. But lets say that the people who took this photo aren't the ones who sent it to Mulder, lets say that the person who developed them is the one, cos I don't think Mulder would know many people with families… then we're looking at where these photos were developed." Jack had read up on the date his last case had begun, and that he had only just finished it last week, handing in his report to A.D. Skinner. Since then he had not been on any field work assignments, so Jack had assumed, and hoped, that Mulder had been doing paperwork, which would help their case out greatly Jack thought to himself.

"And there might be markings on the back of the photographs themselves, so all we have to do is swap our copies with Mulder's copies and we'll have a lead." Sam said, glad that she'd looked at the guest list on the way into the hotel the first night they were staying and had found out which rooms were Mulder and Scully's. She was always pleased that their team could bounce ideas off one another, they all had a very good personal relationship with each other, which just made their working relationships better and stronger. They worked exceptionally well as a team, and Sam got along with every member of SG1. Since the previous night she had got along with Jack a lot better than Teal'c and Jonas, but that was only to be expected. On the whole, they were the best team on the base, they just clicked. She was glad of that in situations like these. It was a Godsend.

Jack turned to the group, "OK then, that's the new plan. We break into his room, but we'll have to be hi-tech about it, no forced entry, he can't know we've been there. It'll have to be a gloves and paper shoes job" Jack told the group letting them know that they were going to have to wear the ridiculous looking shower caps so that no hair would fall onto the floor and give them away, and paper shoes so they wouldn't leave any muddy footprints. Teal'c was excluded from wearing the shower caps, of course, as the man had no hair on his head. But he was always unhappy about the paper shoes.

"Oh man, I hate a gloves and paper shoes job," said Jonas, complaining as he felt silly wearing the protective clothing that he had to wear when they were snooping around people's houses.

"It's ok, Jonas, I don't think you'll be picking up any women on this trip," Sam informed him as she knew he did have an avid interest in anything with legs in a skirt. Jonas had repeatedly asked her to find out about different women in the SGC base, as he hadn't the courage to do it himself, and he had always used the 'friend' card on her to make Sam feel guilty enough to do it. He hadn't had much luck because most of the women on the base valued courage and guts, and they wanted someone who wasn't shy about coming and asking them about themselves and their interests and asking them out personally.

"Like I'd be bothered about that…" Jonas said trailing off his sentence wondering how Sam had read his mind about why he didn't like looking ridiculous. The shower cap and paper shoes did nothing for his cute 'nice boy' image.


	23. Chapter 23

**~Chapter 23~**

_Scully packing her case in her room._

As Scully walked around her room, making sure that she wasn't going to forget anything, Mulder knocked at her door. "Come in, Mulder, it's open" she told him. She had anticipated him coming over as he did most of the time when she was packing, she wasn't sure whether it was to annoy her, for the company, or just to get a list in his head of all she was packing so that he'd not forget anything either.

"Hey, you're packing early, when I said get our stuff together I thought we'd at least stay for dinner here." He said, seeming surprised that she was so busy so soon. Mulder himself had left his room in the usual mess, nothing seemingly organised to anyone else's brain apart from his own.

"Well, yeah, we can stay for dinner, but I just wanted to get a head start so I don't forget anything. Oh, and Mulder, don't forget your toothbrush like last time." She said, surprised that he was the one who wanted to stay considering the findings. He had obviously changed his mind about rushing back to the office.

"I knew there was something I hadn't thought of." He told her, grateful that she was so conscientious, that she looked after him even when she didn't have to. "So, I figured that we could get room service tonight, if you want."

"Do we have to Mulder? I'd prefer to go into the restaurant."

"Why, is there a waiter you have your eye on?" He asked in a joking tone.

"No, Mulder, it's just that I prefer to sit at a table and have my plates cleared… eating room service kinda makes me think I have to do the dishes afterwards." If there was anything Scully liked, it was a nice meal out in a nice restaurant. She had always liked to go to a restaurant if she was on a date, it was a nice place to talk, and you didn't have to sit through any awful film without ruining the prospect of a half decent relationship by getting up and leaving halfway through due to boredom.

"Ok, sure, yeah, let me just go and get a jacket from my room." He said, getting up and heading for the door.

"I'll call down and let them know we're on our way, where do you want to sit?" she asked him.

"Same place as breakfast, it was nice on that table."

"Ok, I'll see if they've got it free." She said.

"No, that's ok, I'll do it, Scully." He replied.

"Mulder, why have you changed your mind about rushing back home?" she asked, really feeling the need to know why she was having all her plans changed.

"I just called the airline, and they can't get us out on a flight till later on tonight, so we'll have to stick around for a while."

"Oh, I was wondering, you seemed to keen to get back to the office in the car." She replied, suddenly having the fog lifted from her mind, it wasn't him at all, it was the airline. She was half expecting a comment from him about how it was a conspiracy to keep him from getting to the truth, and the government had told the airline to refrain from putting them both on an early flight. She waited for the comment, but it didn't come.

Opening the door, Mulder turned back towards Scully. "I'll be right back," he told her as he crossed the hall and put his key in the door.

Mulder entered his room and thought that he should really have a tidy up. He looked around at the mess he'd left that morning. Obviously room service hadn't come round yet, either that or they just took one look at the place and decided to leave it well alone. He wouldn't blame them, he would have probably done the same thing if it were his job to look after the rooms and Hhcame across one like his. The place looked like it had been ransacked. Burglars would take one look at the place, think that it'd already been done over and walk out. Still, at least that way nothing would go missing, Mulder thought to himself.

Picking up the phone he moved a pile of clothes away from the pillow with his free hand so he could sit down and make the phone call to reserve their table for that night's dinner. He sat down and bounced up and down on the bed to test it out. He had only slept in it once, but felt like he wanted to take it home. He hardly ever used his bed at home, most of the time falling asleep on the sofa while he was watching alien autopsy videos that he'd bought from mail order online. His bed at home was a water bed. He remembered the day he'd told Scully he'd splashed out on a water bed. She'd thrown a magazine at him for using bad puns. He did like his water bed, but it did prove interesting trying to get out of it in the morning from the middle without posing the threat of it bursting. He remembered that he had once caused a leak and his landlord was not impressed, pointing out that he was not allowed to have a water bed. His downstairs neighbour was also not happy with him either, as the water had ruined her ceiling and most of her wallpaper that she'd only just put up. Needless to say, Mulder didn't have many friends in his building. He'd got rid of the leaky bed, and promised everyone he'd not have another, but two days later there was one on his front doorstep from the department store in the neighbourhood that delivered. He had tipped the delivery man a lot to not tell anyone what he had been struggling to move up the corridor from the elevator to the end of the hallway to his apartment. It had been worth it though, the feeling of water underneath him when he slept on it that night was blissful.

As Mulder put down the phone, he picked up the photographs and smiled to himself. Shaking his head he knew that this might very well be his one and only major chance to prove that all his theories were right, and that there were aliens on earth after all. That he wasn't just 'Spooky' Mulder from the academy thinking up wacky ideas to annoy his supervisors. He would finally be taken seriously, and not just by those he worked with, by everyone he knew and even those he didn't. He could go public with his findings, and warn everyone about the aliens on the planet.

Wondering if he should take the photographs with him to dinner to look over them further, he walked halfway to the door with them in his hands. Then he stopped, turned back, and dropped them back on the bed, rational thought kicking in, realising that if he were to bring them to dinner with him, and try to discuss the case, Scully wouldn't be very happy if he were to discuss the possibility of her being wrong over dinner. He didn't want to make her any more annoyed than she already was, and after all, he had given her a good teasing in the car on the way back from Joe's office. He was beginning to feel bad about it and decided he should get her something to say he was sorry.

Checking he had his key, his wallet and his phone, he glanced over his room once more and shut the door behind him, just as Scully was doing the same and they went to dinner.

As they waited for the elevator a man stood next to them. Mulder felt as though he had to make polite conversation.

"Going to dinner too?" asked Scully, evidently wanting to talk to the man she thought was cute.

"No, I'm just going to reception to ask about bus times from here." He replied.

"Gonna see some sights?" asked Mulder, trying to make conversation and tuning out so he didn't really hear the answer.


	24. Chapter 24

**~Chapter 24~**

_SG1 in the corridor of Mulder and Scully's rooms._

"Jack, wait!" said Sam in a loud, forceful whisper making Jack stop in his tracks. They had just turned the corner of the corridor that Mulder and Scully's were staying on, when Sam had seen them coming out of their rooms. The hall was quite narrow, and painted white with lots of pictures of the rain forest. A couple of plants at every turn brightened the place up a bit, and a few side tables place here and there with pink shaded lamps on them, gave an old feel, as though the hotel hadn't changed in the past thirty years or so.

Quickly and silently the four of them moved back around the corner so they weren't seen by the F.B.I agents. The last thing they wanted to do was let them know they were being watched. Mulder was paranoid enough on his own without their help.

Jack looked around, trying to quickly formulate a plan in his mind, he didn't know where Mulder and Scully were going, or indeed for how long. "Jonas, follow them, see where they're going. Then come back and report." He ordered, moving his head in the direction of the elevator at the end of the corridor. They were hardly as smooth an operation as the secret service, but at least they hadn't been caught.

Jonas turned the corner, leaving the other three hidden behind the wall, and walked swiftly down the corridor, playing with his clothes so he'd seem normal if they turned around and saw him. They had pressed the button for the elevator and with panic overcoming him, he realised he'd have no other choice but to ride down the elevator with them, or he'd lose them. Standing beside them he looked over and smiled politely in their direction, trying to remain calm, as Mulder nodded back and Scully smiled the doors opened and the two men gestured for Scully to enter first. She smiled, lowering her head as she moved forward, saying 'Thanks' to both of them. Jonas hoped he looked uninteresting.

"Going to dinner too?" Scully asked Jonas.

"No, I'm just going to reception to ask about bus times from here." He said, hoping that his tone of voice would remain settled enough for his story to be convincing.

"Gonna see some sights?" asked Mulder, wondering if he was going on his own, and trying to make some polite conversation.

"Yeah, I just wish I'd remembered to bring my camera with me on this trip. I'll have to go and find a drugstore and get one of those single use ones." He said, hoping that they wouldn't have too much of a long conversation in case they bumped into each other in the future and Mulder and Scully recognised him.

"Yeah, they're good." Said Scully as the elevator stopped and the two men once again gestured for her to get off first.

"Well, see ya, have a nice time at the sights." Mulder said, following Scully's fast pace towards the dining room.

"Bye," said Jonas after them, moving towards the reception desk and picking up some tourist information pamphlets and pretending to be interested.

"Can I help you sir?" asked the receptionist behind the desk.

"No, thanks, I've got what I came down for." He said smiling at her before turning and walking back to the elevator nonchalantly. Riding up in the elevator Jonas's insides were tumbling over themselves, his heart pounding with both excitement, anxiety and relief that he'd not been caught out and that he could finally relax a little

Racing down the corridor to Mulder's room, Jonas knocked on the door quietly.

Teal'c opened the door and let him in. Sam immediately handed him a pair of paper shoes, a pair of gloves and a shower cap so they wouldn't leave any trace of them being there. His face practically fell and hit the floor, he had hoped that she would have forgotten.

"Where'd they go?" asked Jack.

"They've gone to dinner, they won't be back for a while." He told him, while putting on his equipment carefully, albeit reluctantly.

"I was kinda worried when I saw you talking to them, what did you say?" Jack asked.

"Just that I was going to see some sights. Nothing too memorable."

"Good." Said Jack, looking around the room, wondering where to start.

"Wow you guys made a mess here!" he exclaimed looking around the room. "How long was I gone?!" he asked, his tone of voice conveying his shock.

"We have not yet started to search the room, Jonas Quinn." Teal'c told him. "The room was in fact like this when we got here." Jonas's eyes almost popped out of his head. He wondered how anyone could leave their room like this. If this was how Mulder left his hotel room, what was his actual home like?

"Looks like we've got what we want anyway," Sam said, picking up the envelope from where Mulder had dropped it on the bed. As she opened the envelope and took out the photos, she turned them round to look at the back. They had what they were looking for, the pharmacy stamp showing the name of the place where they were developed. "Jack, look at this," Sam said, calling him over to her to look at what she had found.

"No way… how easy is this?" Jack said, with a smile on his face, standing just a little closer to her than he really should have been whilst in public company. "Sweet!"

"Name, address and city!" Sam told Jonas and Teal'c, with a smile on her face.

"Now all we have to do is hope Mulder was too interested in the front of the photo's to look at the back of them." Said Jonas.

"Yeah, let's hope." Said Sam, sending up a silent prayer to the heavens.

"We can do more than that, campers" said Jack, "Search around to see if he's written that address down anywhere, like diary or whatever" he said, knowing that the only place that they couldn't check would be in Mulder's wallet, which is where he'd most likely have put it. It was a shame that they hadn't had a chance yet to train Jonas in the art of pick pocketing, or he could have taken it from Mulder in the elevator. On the other hand, thought Jack to himself, if Mulder had noticed it was gone during dinner, their time in his room would have been cut short and might have caused them serious trouble.

The team searched the room and came up with nothing. After moving everything to search for clues, they had the overwhelming task of putting everything back the way they found it, in a mess. Jack thought that it would have been so much easier to leave things as they found them if Mulder had been a tidy man.

Sam swapped the photographs around, making sure that the replacements were in the same order as the originals so Mulder wouldn't catch on that they'd been swapped.

Then, quickly and silently they all left the room, taking off the paper shoes and shower caps and gloves, putting them into a plastic bag that Sam had brought in her "breaking in kit" and threw them all away in the room service trolley wastebasket.


	25. Chapter 25

**~Chapter 25~**

_Mulder and Scully having dinner in the restaurant._

"Oh, I'm glad we've come down here, Mulder, it's so much nicer than being cooped up in the room."

"You're just glad you got to come down in the elevator with that guy." Mulder teased as Scully blushed.

"What guy?" she asked, faking innocence.

"The one you were glancing at every three seconds to check if he was still there." Mulder looked up at her from above his menu which the waiter had just handed to them. He had always loved teasing Scully, it was a way to divert attention from his own lack of love life. When she had first come to work with him, she had a steady boyfriend, whose name Mulder had not made the effort to remember. But with the long hours that the F.B.I. required, and the distances they had to travel for their particular cases, it had made it almost impossible for either of them to have a serious relationship. Mulder knew that Scully had always like the stability and familiarity that came with a relationship, and he had felt bad for her that his quest, his work, The X Files had taken the opportunity to find someone away from her. When they had been out on an investigation once, they had been stuck in the woods and had to make a camp. Mulder had realised just how lonely Scully had been, and had thought of making a deal with her. He had thought about suggesting that if neither of them were married by the age of forty then they would marry each other. For her, if she agreed, it would be for the company, for him, it would be the company, and the fact that he couldn't really imagine his life without her. The one time they went undercover as a married couple in a gated community, Mulder had enjoyed the scenario, even if she had nagged him about leaving the toilet seat up over and over again.

"Don't look at me like that, Mulder. I don't criticise you over your collection of films in the bottom drawer of your filing cabinet which you claim aren't yours, so why should you criticise me for looking at a cute guy in the elevator?" she said, her tone with an edge that Mulder found disconcerting.

"Ok, ok," he said, putting down his menu and holding his hands up in front of him, as if to put some space between him and Scully just in case she decided to hit him over the head. He wondered why she had got so touchy, then realised that he had been teasing her a lot on this trip. He thought that he might try to cut back a bit, before they had an argument.

"Let's just order, Mulder, and have a nice pleasant dinner." She suggested, although her voice made it sound like an order. Mulder thought that she would have been good in the Services… a Major or something, her bite was definitely worse than her bark. Appearances can definitely be deceiving, he thought.

As the two of them waited for their food to arrive, they sat in silence for a while, Mulder not wanting to say anything out loud in case it offended Scully. He wondered if she was tired, sometimes she got cranky when she was tired. Or maybe she was just upset that his theory was looking to be proven right about the photographs. Mulder had noticed that Scully, aside from wanting a logical explanation to everything, was a sore loser. She was a very competitive person, probably because she was the second youngest of four children, and had to fight for her share and her status when she was a child. She had one elder brother, and an elder sister, then she was third in line, and then her younger brother followed her. She had only one person she could boss about with ease, the rest she had always had to work on.

"So, Mulder, what time are we going home?" she asked him, breaking his line of thought.

"Well, it's six now, and I know they have a plane out at half past nine, so I say we have a quick dinner, and then get that flight out. We'll be home by midnight at the latest."

"Good, I'll need a good night's sleep if we're to be in the office at 9am tomorrow."

"Well," Mulder said, thoughts whirling round in his head at the speed of light, "We could phone skinner now and tell him we'll be in late and we'll make it up at the end of the day."

"Yeah, we're better off doing that, Mulder, then we can have a bit of a rest and get ourselves sorted before we go into work."

"I'll call him now," Mulder said getting up from the table to go out of the dining room to make the call. "Order for me?" he asked Scully, as she nodded in reply, wondering if they would do a plate full of sunflower seeds for him.

"Hello, F.B.I., A.D. Skinner's office, how may I help you?" asked the voice on the other end of Mulder's cell phone.

"Hi Tracy, it's Mulder, is Skinner in?" he asked, hoping that he'd be put through without the usual security checks, although he knew it wasn't likely.

"Can I take your badge number for verification please?" Tracy asked.

"Yeah, sure," said Mulder resignedly, rolling his eyes to himself. "JTT047101111" he rattled off the number quickly so he wouldn't lose his place and forget it. Why they had to make these numbers so long he didn't know.

"Sure, Mulder, I'll put you through now, how are you enjoying New York?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's ok, we're going to come back tonight though."

"That soon? Why's that?" Tracy asked, knowing that if it were her, she'd try and get as much time away from the office as possible.

"Oh, we've got a lead on the case, and if we leave it too long it could go as cold as my porridge usually ends up."

Laughing, Tracy replied, "You eat porridge? I never had you down as the porridge type, Mulder."

"Ah, but there's a lot you don't know about me, Tracy," Mulder told her, his voice filled with mystery.

Laughing at his joke, Tracy got back to business. "Ok, his line is free now, putting you through."

"Thanks, see you soon." Mulder told her as she put the call through.

"Skinner." Assistant Director Walter Skinner picked up the phone.

"Sir, it's Mulder."

"Mulder, what have you got for me?" Skinner sounded busy, Mulder thought he'd better make this quick.

"Interesting results from the photographs. They're not fakes sir, Scully's going to come back and try to look up a medical cause for the glowing eyes. We're going to catch the flight tonight, but we might be an hour late tomorrow morning, but we're going to stay late, if that's ok, sir." Mulder gave a brief report to his superior as he knew he didn't like to talk for very long over the phone.

"Yeah, Mulder, that's fine, just don't forget to put it down on your pay sheets what hours you've done."

"We won't sir, see you tomorrow."

"I take it this needs a bit more investigation then, Mulder?" Skinner asked hoping that it didn't, his tolerance level was not the highest in these matters.

"Yes, sir, some at least."

"See you tomorrow Agent Mulder. Have a safe trip." Skinner put the phone down before Mulder could say goodbye in return.


	26. Chapter 26

**~Chapter 26~**

_SG1 in Jack's room._

"Ok campers, we need to get packed ASAP and get on the plane back to the SGC." Jack told the group. "We need to be ready in 20 minutes to check out and go. Half an hour till we have to be in the car, all clear?" He asked the group, and they all nodded in reply. "Ok, then, lets go."

Teal'c and Jonas quickly left the room to go and pack their things from their own rooms. They had all travelled light, just bringing one item of hand luggage on the plane with them sharing all the equipment that they might have needed between them so any checks that were run wouldn't look suspicious to an over eager airport security guard.

Sam remained in Jack's room. "Have you called General Hammond?" she asked him, wondering what their commanding officer had to say about the situation.

"No, not yet, I figured we'd find out what we could get from Mulder's photo's before I called him, I'll do it now." He said, reaching into his pocket and began to dial the number.

"Ok, well, I'll go and start packing then," Sam said as she moved forward and kissed Jack goodbye with more urgency than she'd ever kissed anyone before, knowing that this might be their last chance to do this for a while. Holding his face in her hands she looked at him with such intensity she almost cried, before leaving the room.

Jack had a smile on his face as wide as an ocean by the time she'd walked out of the room and the switchboard at Cheyenne Mountain had been answered. His thoughts interrupted by a voice on the end of the phone, he had to quickly bring himself out of world he had just been in and reluctantly back to reality.

"Cheyenne Mountain, Deep Space Telemetry Research Facility, how may I help you?"

"This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, calling for General Hammond please." Jack said.

"I'll just put you through now Colonel." Said the voice on the other end.

The phone rang and rang before it was eventually answered.

"Hammond" said the General on the other end.

"Sir, just checking in with you to let you know how things are going here."

"Colonel O'Neill, good to hear from you. Is everything going well?" Hammond asked, hoping that he was about to receive good news.

"Better than expected sir. We're on our way back to base."

"I'll have the plane ready for you in an hour, Colonel. I want you all back here as soon as possible. We need to control this situation… I take it we do have a situation Colonel?"

"Yes sir, but it's not all bad news. I'd better go and get packed, I'll fill you in on the details when we get back."

"Goodbye Jack, see you in a while." Hammond said.

"Bye sir." Jack replied, not daring to be so informal with someone he respected so much, especially considering the topic of their conversation. Jack really didn't think this was a time for informalities and friendships, this was a time for business and work. A professional attitude was needed, and had to be maintained if they wanted to keep their planet as they liked it. And Jack liked the planet just fine as it was.

Jack hung up the phone and started to pack his things. Making sure that the photographs he'd swapped with Mulder's were inside his shirt, right next to his body where they'd be more than safe from everyone apart from Sam, he smiled to himself. He busied himself with making the bed, a tradition he'd never got out of since his training at the beginning of his Air Force days when he was just a cadet, even though the maids would just have to do it again to change the sheets. These kind of things, however, often stuck with Jack, he did like discipline every now and then, even though he was known for being the most laid back Colonel on the base at the SGC. His friends, even though they were a rank lower than him, had always just called him Jack, he had never been one for titles, well, not his own anyway. He never liked having to have people he'd fought for his country beside, people whose lives he'd saved, and who had saved his, call him Colonel. It just didn't seem right to him.

Checking once more that he had everything that he had brought with him, he left the room making sure that he had his key with him, and closed the door behind him making his way across the hall to Sam's room.

Knocking on the door, he called her name. "Sam, you ready?"

"Yeah, just coming Jack." She called back through the door. As the door opened and she walked out she walked straight into Jack almost bumping heads with him. She looked up at him, smiled awkwardly and said "Sorry, Jack, I didn't expect you to be right there."

"I'm always going to be right here." He told her with a meaningful look, his hand on her arm sending goose bumps all over her body, making her go weak at the knees.

"I know." She said with a smile.

"Well, we're ready," he said, briskly changing the subject, "Lets go see if the other's are ready too. Did you remember your key?"

"Yeah, I got it." she said, tapping her pocket, as they walked down the corridor, his had on the small of her back, to meet up with the others.

After meeting up with Teal'c and Jonas the four of them checked out of the hotel, and got in the car to the airport. The journey seemed longer going there than it had been on the way to the hotel. Teal'c once again felt great discomfort being in the back seat of the car, and was not looking forward to the flight in an aircraft that was bound to be as small as the last one he had been in. He really didn't like to be cramped into small places. He often thought that planes should be more like Goa'uld ships, big enough for a thousand people and practically invincible against any kind of turbulence, and plenty of room to sit and walk around. However, he had always though that suggesting this to Colonel O'Neill or General Hammond, would bring great questions as to where his loyalties lay.

Leaving the car with the car rental place at the terminal, they boarded the Air force plane and headed back to base to review what they had found and the implications of a Goa'uld on the planet. The situation could have been worse, a lot worse. At least they knew where the photograph was taken, or at least developed, so tomorrow they'd travel to the pharmacy after briefing General Hammond, and find out if the people who developed the film could remember anything about the people who brought it in. They only had a slight chance of getting any information at all, and the leads they might get would be even less likely to lead them anywhere other than a dead end. But, a slight chance was better than none at all and they just had to make the most of what they had.

All they had to do was hope that Mulder and Scully hadn't thought of, or actually looked at the back of the pictures. They needed a head start on the two F.B.I. agents.


	27. Chapter 27

**~Chapter 27~**

_Mulder and Scully checking out and going to catch their plane._

"Got everything?" Scully asked Mulder, knowing that he was never a boy scout and wasn't the greatest person in the world for remembering what he had taken with him in his suitcase. She had often suggested doing a standard list for him, but he had always refused. Probably an insult to his manhood and masculinity she had concluded; the need to be prepared and be able to take care of himself.

"Yeah, I think so." He replied, running a mental check of everything he'd picked up in the hotel room, making sure once more that he'd got the photographs with him in his bag.

"You want me to make sure?" Scully offered, knowing that if he'd left anything behind, she'd never hear the end of how it had been his favourite shirt or pair of pants or favourite C.D.

"Yeah, please, just in case," he said as he blushed at his own incompetence, not really wanting to relent as he thought himself quite old enough to look after himself, but it never hurt to have a second person just check.

As Scully took his key off him and opened the door, she handed him her suitcase to hold while she did a quick sweep of his room. It always amazed her that the man never missed the slightest detail in a crime scene, but when it came to clearing up after himself he was hopeless. She bent under the bed and reached underneath for the pen. "This yours?" she asked him.

"Yeah, thanks." He said taking it off her and putting it in his top jacket pocket, looking down at his shoes so he didn't show how ashamed he was that he hadn't done a check himself.

Whilst Scully was scanning the bathroom quickly to check he hadn't left his shampoo or razor or anything, Mulder opened the wardrobe to reveal it empty. The same with the drawers by his bed. Nothing there either.

"Right, I think you've got everything, Mulder," she said, "Lets go and check out and get the plane home."

"Sounds good to me." He said, following her out of the room, making sure that he had the key back off her.

"So, what did Skinner say then?" she asked, as he hadn't mentioned the phone call to their supervisor.

"Just that it was ok for us to come in an hour late, so long as we stayed late too and remembered to put it on our pay sheets." Mulder informed her of the Assistant Director's instructions.

"Did he ask about the case?" she asked, knowing that he would have, but wanting to know what Mulder had told him.

"Yeah, I told him that the photos aren't fake, and that you're going to look for a medical reason behind them."

"Did he buy it? Or was he expecting a different explanation from you?" She asked him, knowing what was probably going through Skinner's head, and that it probably wasn't in favour of any of Mulder's suggestions to continue with the investigation.

"He was expecting it, but he didn't really sound in the mood to hear it, so I thought it best not to push the envelope." Mulder told her, recalling Skinner's busy tone of voice on the phone.

"Good idea," Scully said as she approached the desk. "We'd like to check out please." She told the receptionist.

"Certainly. May I have your keys please?"

As the F.B.I agents handed over the keys to their rooms, and the receptionist printed up the bill, Mulder had a look at the comments book that was on the counter to the left of him.

"Did you have a nice stay with us?" the receptionist asked Scully politely. Scully got the feeling that she'd been trained to ask that question.

"Yes, it was very nice, thank you. Wonderful food you have here." She replied remembering the dinner she'd had that evening and the wide choice of breakfast that had been available to them that morning.

"Thank you." Replied the receptionist. "I'll be sure to tell the chef that you liked it."

As Mulder and Scully signed the bill to say they were F.B.I agents and that the Bureau was picking up the bill as this was an investigative trip, the receptionist asked them, "Did your colleagues have a nice time too?"

"What colleagues?" Mulder asked, suddenly very alert and suspicious. His head clearing of all other thoughts about how old the receptionist might be and what her telephone number was. He was suddenly very aware that the only two people he knew here were himself and Scully.

"The four people who said they were your colleagues, three men and a woman." She told them, wondering why they were suddenly looking at her strangely, wondering if she'd said something she really shouldn't have.

"Other F.B.I. Agents?" Scully asked quizzically, thinking that if any other agents were in the hotel the Bureau would be picking up the bill for them too. Logical explanations first, she thought, as she looked across to Mulder's face, which had 'Suspicion' written all over it.

"I don't think so, they didn't say that they'd have anyone paying for the bill, they just said that they were colleagues of yours and asked yesterday if you'd arrived and left for your meeting yet." She told them.

"Oh, yeah…" Mulder said, trying to cover his shock and the fact that his mind was racing as to whom the someone else apart from himself, Scully, Joe and Skinner knew about their meeting with Joe could be, "Yeah our colleagues, yeah, they said the food was nice as well. Thanks a lot, see ya!" Mulder said as he guided Scully towards their car. His mind was suddenly flooded with ideas and suggestions about who the receptionist could be talking about. His first thought was that there had been some superiors in the F.B.I, maybe 'Cancer Man' had arrived to stop whatever progress they were making.

And then he remembered the group he'd seen at breakfast with the big guy. Three men and one woman, and one of those guys was also the man who rode the elevator with them. At the time, Mulder had just thought they were just ordinary people who were staying at the hotel. Nothing to be suspicious of, especially as the man in the elevator had been off to see the sights. A lie, Mulder thought, certainly a lie. But on the other hand, why on earth would he have spoken to them if he was investigating them or their case? Mulder's mind ran back to the elevator. He had smiled, been pleasant, and tuned out so that he didn't have to hear the man's answer to his question.

"Scully, did you see where that guy went, the one from the elevator?" He asked, urgency making his voice shaky.

"Yeah, he went to the desk, Mulder, he picked up a leaflet." She said, as they walked through the car park to their rented car.

"And after that?"

"I don't know, I think he might have gone back upstairs, I was more concerned with dinner." She said, wondering why Mulder was so concerned. The receptionist had probably just made a mistake.

Mulder's stomach fell to his toes. "Scully, we've got trouble." He told her in a tone of voice that scared her, as he got into the car and drove to the airport as fast as he could.


	28. Chapter 28

**~Chapter 28~**

_SG1 on the plane back to Cheyenne Mountain and the SGC._

"You know something, Jonas?" Jack said, suddenly breaking the silence that SG1 had been sitting in. All four members turned to look at Jack.

"What's that?" he asked, wondering where the sentence had come from.

"I'll bet Mulder would have died if he'd known he was standing in an elevator with a real live alien!"

Jonas laughed, Sam laughed shaking her head whilst Teal'c looked at Jack, smiling slightly tilting his head to one side and raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess he would haven't really believed it since I'm not small and green though. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, I mean if he knew that Thor was grey not green he might feel better." Jonas mused at the possibility of Mulder finding out about the universe in the same way that the SGC knew about it.

"I get the feeling he'd flip if he knew that aliens really did exist, I mean if he found out the real proof, he'd probably have a heart attack," Sam said, still smiling to herself about Mulder's possible reaction if he found out he'd been in an elevator with someone from another planet. Her smile remained as she remembered how Jack had been insistent on taking Teal'c to 'Area 51' just to say that a real live alien had actually been there. Jack's sense of humour was unique she thought, giggling to herself quietly.

"So I told Hammond that we'd be packing up tomorrow morning and we'd go and see this pharmacy and see if anyone can remember anything," said Jack, turning the conversation to business.

"What time do we leave in the morning, Jack?" asked Jonas, following suit, realising that the joking time was over and that they still had a very serious matter at hand to deal with.

It could literally be the end of the world if they didn't stop this Goa'uld on the planet. Brainwashing, taking people as hosts, and just forcing people to worship him were not the greatest of prospects. The Goa'uld had done it with thousands of other planets. It only took one Goa'uld to get an idea in its head, and take a ship to a less advanced planet, or use the stargate, and the rest was simple. Force the people of the planet to worship them as their God, create an army of Jaffa by using the inhabitants of the world they'd conquered. The Jaffa served two purposes, first of all to fight in the name of the Goa'uld that had made them into slaves, and second to carry infant Goa'uld parasites that had not yet matured and were not ready for a host. In return, the Jaffa had a very long life, almost two hundred years in some cases, and were able to heal very quickly. However, take the infant Goa'uld out of the Jaffa's stomachs, and they would be left with no immune system at all. It was a catch twenty two situation. Once made into Jaffa, the men needed the infant Goa'uld to survive, and the Goa'uld needed the Jaffa to survive and fight for them. It had happened to thousands of other planets, and it was now a possibility that it would happen to Earth, again. Sure, the human race would put up a fight, but sooner or later the technologically advanced Goa'uld would win. The people of earth had rockets, but they'd only ever been to the moon in a space craft, if you could call a shuttle that. But they were still at war with each other over who should go to Mars first. So far the ingenuity of SG1 had saved them from an attack from orbit, but that was because they'd disobeyed orders. If the ship was already in orbit, there'd be no way to stop it. Back in the days of Ancient Egypt, the Goa'uld had run freely on the planet. Building temples in their honour, and having an entire people worship them. Eventually the people of Earth, or the Tau'ri as it had been known then, led a rebellion and had driven the Goa'uld out. The theory was that they had refused to let their children be made into Jaffa, and so the Goa'uld had no choice but to leave.

"We leave at 06:00 hours." He told the group, suddenly realising that they'd have to sleep on the plane tomorrow. But he wasn't concerned with getting enough sleep, he was concerned with stopping the Goa'uld. Jack was very worried about the consequences if they didn't. He for one didn't want to have to have a new God, and a parasitical one at that. He knew how the Goa'uld reproduced, they took Human's as hosts, and Jack knew that he was the last one that was going to happen to. He was determined that he was not going to speak Goa'uld… for starters he had problems getting the words right on his own, he didn't want a Goa'uld in his head telling him how to say things. He knew they would have to be stopped. They'd done it before, they'd been in worse situations, they'd stopped Seth they could stop this other guy. Once they found out who he was.

"Jonas, when we get back will you do me a favour?" asked Sam.

"Sure, what's that?"

"Will you bring me all of Daniels books? I want to look through some of them. He kept lists of all the Goa'uld that we'd heard of through history, and if any of the major names weren't out trying to control and destroy other planets."

"Yeah, that's a good idea, Sam" said Jack, "If we can find out who this other Goa'uld is, we can find out what his tactics have been like in the past, what he's trying to represent, and do a search on the net, for cults… right?" He asked her with a puzzled look on his face.

"Yeah, we can sir, I'll get on it right away when we get back."

"I'll bring you those books then, Sam," said Jonas, wondering why he hadn't thought of the idea first. He wasn't having a great few days.

As they got back to the SGC Sam and Jonas went off to find Daniel's old books and to pull, what would probably be, an all-nighter looking for possible suspects. Teal'c went to his room to do Kel Nor Reem, his meditation to keep himself healthy, and Jack went to fill in the General about what was happening.

Jack knocked on the door and walked in. He coughed slightly as he wasn't sure if Hammond had heard him. "Sir?" He asked.

"Ah, Jack, come in, and sit down. What's the situation?"

"Well, sir, there's good news and there's bad news." Jack said, taking a seat.

"What's the bad news?" Hammond asked disappointed that this wasn't a hoax.

"That the photos aren't fake." Jack replied.

"And the good news?"

"That we're ahead of Mulder and Scully to find where they were taken, and where the Goa'uld might be, and that they don't know what a Goa'uld is. Sa.. Carter and Jonas are looking up possible suspects right now." He said, almost slipping up and letting out that he and Sam were more than just colleagues.

"Good, let's hope that they don't find any clues."

"Well, I swapped the photos over, the pictures they had have the address of the pharmacy on the back, hopefully they didn't look at the back of them. My guess is that if Mulder had looked, he wouldn't have left them in his room." Jack said, hoping and praying that Mulder just wasn't forgetful.

"Very good Colonel, don't forget you leave tomorrow at 06:00 hours."

"Yes sir." Jack said and left.


	29. Chapter 29

**~Chapter 29~**

_Mulder and Scully on the way to the airport, Mulder driving._

"Mulder, Mulder slow down!" Scully had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise of the car engine. She wondered if the gear box would hold out.

"No, we have to catch them up, Scully!" Mulder said, as though his life depended on it. He was in a frantic mood. His mind was made up that someone was trying to stop him from finding the truth about the photographs, and now the race was on to get to the truth first.

"Mulder, you don't even know who they are or even if they were the people asking after us, the receptionist could have just made a mistake. She could have mistaken us for anyone," Scully said, trying to be rational, as she gripped the passenger door handle for dear life as Mulder took a corner a bit on the fast side.

"Scully, they were up to something, I just know it."

"All they did was have breakfast in the same dining room as us." She told him, her voice sounding annoyed at his very suspicious nature.

"Don't forget the guy who was in the elevator with us, Scully, he was with that group."

"Oh yeah.." she trailed off not really bothered if he was in the group or not. 'Big deal' she thought to herself, 'So what?!' She hated when Mulder's over active imagination was switched on. Maybe it was too many sunflower seeds.

"They were up to something. Will you do me a favour, check these photos again, and just make sure they're still there, that they are the ones we got sent to us, last thing we need is pictures of the president instead." Mulder said, his voice with a panicked edge to it.

"Not unless they're pictures of dead presidents!" Scully said, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood.

"Scully, please, just check them." Mulder said, with a desperate tone, almost as though he were giving the order instead of asking a favour.

"Ok, ok, I'll check them." As Scully reached inside Mulder's jacket pocket which was on the back seat he took another sharp corner and she was thrown against the door and banged her head. "Ouch! Mulder, be careful!"

"I'm sorry, I just want to catch them."

Reaching over for the envelope once more Scully brought it back to the front seat with her. "How do you know they've even gone to the airport, Mulder? They could have gone to the train station, the bus station, or they could just be driving back to wherever they came from."

Mulder hadn't thought about that and suddenly realised that Scully was right. There was no way to know where they had gone, all Mulder was going on was a hunch. A dejected look fell on his face. He lifted his foot up off the accelerator and slowed the speed of the car down. "Are the photographs the same ones?" he asked, hopefully.

"Yeah, they're exactly the same. Look for yourself." She showed him a few of the pictures as Mulder sighed with relief. "The receptionist must have been mistaken then, after all. I'm sorry, Scully." He said, still wondering if it was the truth, or whether he should follow his hunch and go after the group of four people. Calming down slightly, he wondered why they had been asking after them, or if indeed they were asking after them. Maybe the receptionist got it wrong, maybe it was a phone call from Skinner to check up on them to see if they were working and at a meeting or just on holiday at the expense of the Bureau. There were endless opportunities to explain what had happened. Mulder had just been in too much of a rush, and had been too paranoid, to think of them before. And now, he had hurt Scully in the process. He thought to himself that he had to stop jumping to conclusions. He had always been warned that one day it would get someone hurt, and now it had.

"That's ok, we'll have to get some ice at the airport though because my head hurts pretty bad." She replied, not really mad at him, but just annoyed.

Mulder pulled over the car to take a look at her. He couldn't believe that in his haste he'd hurt her. Taking her head in his hands, he moved her head so he could see her right temple. There was a pretty big bump on the side of it. It was bright red in the middle and turning blue around the edges. Luckily it wasn't bleeding.

"Skinner's gonna think you and me had a falling out." He said to her, stroking her hair away from her face. "I'm sorry, Dana," he said, calling her by her first name to re-enforce his apology, to make sure she knew he meant it, "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know Mulder, don't worry, I'll live, I just need some ice to reduce the swelling." She said, not really in pain anymore, it was more of a dull ache, but still grateful for his concern over her.

He kissed her on the head, "There, to make it feel better."

She couldn't help but smile at the gesture. "Come on Mulder, or we're going to miss check in time."

Mulder took the handbrake off the car, and pulled out onto the road. "Do you remember the way back, Scully? Cos I don't want you holding the map upside down again like you were on the way here."

"I was not holding the map upside down, Mulder, thank you very much!" she said, with mock hurt in her voice, still holding her head. "Take a right turn here."

"Right or left?"

"Right… it was a left turn when we came remember?"

"Was it?"

"Yeah."

"You sure?" He sounded doubtful.

"Yes, I'm positive Mulder, just take the turn before you miss it!" She told him.

"Oh yeah." He replied, realising that she was right, and took the turn, being careful not to take it too sharply.

"And then it's the next left." She told him.

"No, I don't think it is, Scully, I'm sure we passed another turnoff."

"No we didn't, Mulder, will you stop arguing with me?"

"I'm not arguing."

"Do you want me to drive?" She asked, knowing that he wouldn't agree to her driving as she always changed the seat and mirrors to her liking and he could never get them back the way he wanted them. Plus there was the fact that they had agreed whoever was driving got to choose the music on the car stereo, and Mulder's tastes differed a lot from Scully's. Scully liked her classical music, with some rock and roll and some modern tunes, Mulder liked his heavy metal and he liked to sing along to country and western, no matter how bad his attempts were.

"No, it's ok." He said, flatly refusing to let her any closer to the steering wheel than she was already.

"Turn off here, Mulder," she told him.

"No, it's the next one, Scully." He replied, and the argument over directions continued all the way to the airport.


	30. Chapter 30

**~Chapter 30~**

_SG1 06:00 hours, packed and ready to go._

"So, the plane is waiting for us?" asked Sam.

"Yeah, we're off to Shelbyville, Tennessee, campers." Jack said, cheerfully. He had always been cheerful in the mornings; he had never had any problems with being the proverbial early bird. Sam had often asked him how he managed it. He had always just smiled at her and not replied. To this day, she was still more than slightly mystified.

"I've seen more of this country on this mission alone than on the entire time I've been here on the planet," Jonas said, not sure if this was a good thing because he'd been kept busy, or a bad thing because he hadn't had chance to appreciate his surroundings. They had been planning on seeing a show in New York, and seeing some of the sights, but those plans had gone through the window quicker than 'Superman' would have done on his way to rescue Lois Lane.

"I have not been to Tennessee either, Jonas Quinn," said Teal'c, who had not even said good morning to the other members of the team since they had met up in the conference room.

As General Hammond walked in, the four members of the team stood up to attention.

"At ease, people" the General commanded. "I don't think I need to tell you all that this mission is of the utmost importance to be completed according to the guidelines, and that everything about it and yourselves is classified. You have to use the same cover story as you did with Joe, that you're looking for someone who stole technology off us, and people, please remember this is on a need-to-know basis."

"Yes sir," said Jack, knowing how things stood already, but knowing that it wouldn't hurt to hear it once more.

"Good luck, dismissed." And the General turned and left the room.

Turning to the team, Jack picked up his bag. "You heard the man, dismissed. Come on, the plane's waiting for us."

As SG1 made their way up the first of two elevators to take them from deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, 28 floors down, Jack ran a check of what they were taking with them. "Zats?" He asked, referring to the Zat'nik'atel's that they had acquired from their various run-ins with the Goa'uld. Teal'c had pronounced the word once for Jack, and unable to get his tongue around the pronunciation, he had immediately shortened the name to 'Zats.'

"Yes sir, two of them, one for Teal'c and one for Jonas. We've got the Earth weapons." Sam told him, knowing that the two Air Force officers were better with guns and machine guns than Teal'c and Jonas were. Although Teal'c and Jonas had both gone through the basic training, Jack and Sam had the experience and practice of hitting moving targets for many years more.

"I am most displeased that I could not bring my staff weapon O'Neill." Said Teal'c feeling like he had a limb missing without it by his side.

"Well, we know you're good with that thing, but it'd kinda give us away, Teal'c" said Jack.

"Indeed." Replied Teal'c resigning himself to being without his favoured choice of weapon.

"So, did you two have any luck last night in finding who we're looking for?" Jack asked Sam and Jonas if their research had gone well.

"Not much, sir, but not nothing either." Sam said, wishing they'd had more time to study the list they had come up with and contact the Tok'ra to see if they knew where any of the Goa'uld's on the list were.

"Possible names then?" Jack asked, wanting to know who he was going to be asking questions about.

"Well, there are two. We've got some we've never heard of, which could mean they're not big players. First off we've got Amun… his name means 'The hidden one' which could indicate that he was hidden from the System Lords and they thought he was either dead or on vacation." Sam said, joking looking up at Jack to see if she could lighten the mood a bit. She didn't want to spend the entire journey on the plane in a depressed mood.

"A possibility." Jack said, giving her a quick smile, but still realising the importance to get on with work.

"Apparently Amun was the supreme creator, he existed beyond the natural world and was concealed from other gods. His name was only written using phonetic symbols, never in words, leaving the essence un-revealed." Jonas said, having memorised the text he had read so many times during the night.

"What else do we know about Amun?" asked Sam.

"Well," Jonas began, "He's very old, pre dynastic. He was around, actively for over two thousand eight hundred years. His name pops up everywhere from pyramid texts, temple hymns and even in the book of the dead, which doesn't bode well. He was known as the Lord of the Sky, a Sun God, and he was seen as King of all the Egyptian world. He was perceived as a primeval deity, who was said to be present in the chaos at the beginning of the universe. Therefore that makes him one of the eight deities of the Ogdoad."

"Well, naturally…" Jack said, with a confused look on his face.

"Kinda like an olden day version of the System Lords" Jonas told him. "Anyway," he continued, "He was often portrayed as one of the major Pharaoh's, and father to each of the following Pharaoh's, so that shows great evidence of him actually being on Earth, instead of ruling through other Goa'uld. He's also seen with blue skin, could be significant, but I don't know how, and wearing a 'Modius' which is like a turban, I guess."

"Right… not into fashion then." Jack commented.

"He's surmounted in several pictures from the temples by two tall plumes of feathers, according to Dr. Jackson's notes, these symbolise dominance over both Lower and Upper Egypt. So, he's a major player. He had a lot of palaces, Soleb, Amada, Gebel, Barkal… there were lots of them, so there are lots of places he could have been hiding out for all this time. He was definitely seen as immortal, which shows he wasn't taken out by any other Goa'uld at the time. There was one challenge to his power, by Aten, but it all came to nothing, and he took back his domain, and remained an important figure till the end of the Egyptian era, just after 400AD."

"Wow, someone's done their homework. Who are the others?" asked Jack.

"Well, this one is an outsider, Amun is our main suspect at the moment, but if it's not him then it could be Thoth. Not much information on him, supposedly a God of wisdom, but that's about all we could find in Daniel's records. There's no account of him dying or going off to another world. It's just a little bit about him, and then that's it." Said Sam, not really thinking that Thoth was a suspect. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's Amun, sir. It just seems to fit the profile, out of the System Lords control, out of their sight, and got an ego the size of the moon if he wouldn't allow his name to be written down."

"Ok, so we'll do a little digging around Shelbyville and see what we can find. Keep your eyes and ears open, even the slightest thing might give us a clue as to what we're dealing with here." Jack hoped that someone would know what they were looking for.


	31. Chapter 31

**~Chapter 31~**

_10am in Mulder's office._

When Mulder walked into his office, nothing had changed, apart from the pair of high heeled feet that were resting on his desk, connected to the legs of the coffee drinking Scully who was sitting in his chair.

"Good morning Mulder." She said, pointing towards the filing cabinet where a 'Starbucks' coffee cup was waiting for him. "It should still be hot, I only got it five minutes ago."

"Wow, you really did bang your head didn't you?" Mulder commented sarcastically. He always thought that Scully hadn't liked to share things with him, after the Saturday they were in the office and he was reading baseball scores instead of working and she hadn't shared her non-fat tofuti rice dreamsicle. She had called him a rebel because he had torn a page out of the F.B.I. official records book. It had been quite an interesting afternoon, and the day had ended with Mulder giving Scully a lesson in how to hit a baseball.

"No, Mulder, I'm just feeling generous today."

"And why is that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because when I prove your alien theory wrong with a genuine medical condition that results in discoloration of the eyes, I'm going to enjoy your apology. So I'm going to be generous until I make you say you're wrong over and over again!" she said with a smile that made Mulder want to hit something. Scully could be such a bitch when she wanted to be. But she was nice with it, and that was the horrible thing. He never stopped thinking she was fantastic. They had become so close that he loved her really, and she was really his best friend when it came down to it, and he hated how she could be so nasty but so nice at the same time. Damn it.

"Have you seen Skinner this morning?" He asked her, changing the subject away from her, apparently, impending gloating session.

"No, not yet, I only got in a few minutes ago."

"Mmmmm, coffee is nice." He said, wondering if he should phone up to the assistant director's office to let him know they were here. "Have you called your contacts in the medical world then, Scully?"

"Nope, I needed my coffee first, before I start work. I'm going to be on the net as well, Mulder, so I guess you have a few hours to sort out some paperwork or something." She said nodding towards the overflowing filing cabinet tray marked 'In' which had filled up over the past day and a half since he was gone.

"I'll bet most of it is junk mail." He said, hoping she hadn't already looked through it and found his 'Triple X' bill or something as equally embarrassing. Picking some of the post up and flicking through it, he tossed some in the trash, knowing that it was just junk mail.

"In that case then, I might just pay a visit to 'The Lone Gunmen' and see what they think of the photos." He said, knowing that when Scully got on the Internet, he had more of a chance of a responsive conversation with the wall. She was always so intrigued by the things she found on the Internet even more so when it was something in particular she was looking for, and as she was so set on proving him wrong, she'd be completely focused.

"Ok, then, where are we meeting for lunch?"

"I'll pick something up on my way back from seeing the guys" he said, knowing that it'd probably be a pizza.

"Ok then, see you later, Mulder, have fun." Scully waved to him as he was walking out of the office as she turned to the phone and her phone book and began to dial her old med school friends.

"Bye," he said quietly feeling just a little upset that he'd been kicked out of his office.

Scully phoned three people in the first ten minutes, the first person she called had left the medical profession to travel around the world, or that's what his mother told Scully. The second had left due to a horrific experience and didn't want to discuss anything to do with 'conditions' again.

The third had gone on to study brain surgery and had never heard of anything to do with glowing eyes. She gave Scully a number of a well known optician, and Scully decided she would call later on. She didn't much like calling people she didn't know for help.

The last person on her list was an ex boyfriend who she didn't really want to have to speak to at all. The break up had been harsh, and she had had a difficult time getting over him.

But she knew that if she wanted answers quickly then she'd have to skip the other five people in between the last number she'd dialled and his number.

"Hello?" said the voice on the other end.

"Hi, Steve, it's Dana, Dana Scully."

"Hi, Dana, wow, it's been a long time, how are you?"

"Fine thanks, how are you?"

"Yeah, I'm ok," Steve said with a curious tone in his voice, surely she didn't just call up to say 'hi'.

"I need to pick your brains, Steve," Scully said, getting straight to the point.

"Ok," he replied, slowly, glad that she hadn't called up to yell at him about their relationship and how it had ended.

"What do you know about optometry and eye diseases?"

"A bit," he replied, immediately searching the back of his brain for any topics he ever covered to do with eyes.

"Know of any conditions which gives the eyes the appearance of glowing?"

"Um, hang on let me think." He paused for a moment, and Scully could have sworn she could hear the cogs turning in his head. "No, I don't think so. I don't think there are any conditions that make your eyes glow. Why do you ask?"

"It's for a case I'm working on, someone has got eyes that glow in a photograph and I wanted to know if there was a medical reason for it."

"Not that I know of, is it a reflection?

"No it's not, we've had the photos checked. Thanks anyway Steve. I'd better go now, bye." And with that she rang off in a disappointed manner. If he didn't know then no-one would.

She turned to the computer. Checking her email address book, and finding some old contacts, she sent a few emails to old friends and colleagues that she'd not spoken to for a long time, but who had all said the customary 'If ever you need anything, just email me,' as they had left whichever meeting they had last had with Scully. She knew that they were all just being polite, but she didn't have many sites on the Internet to check. Realising that it might take some time to get replies from the emails, she fished the number that her third phone call had produced from under a pile of papers and printouts from the computer.

Dialling the number, she felt suddenly nervous. How on Earth was she going to explain who she was and what she wanted to a complete stranger?

"Hello?" said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Scully dove right in and explained who she was and what information she wanted. And after all of that, she was still no further ahead.


	32. Chapter 32

**~Chapter 32~**

_10am Shelbyville military air field_

"We have a car waiting for you when you get off the plane Sir, Ma'am" the co-pilot said to Jack and Sam who were at the front of the little plane that had taken them from Cheyenne Mountain at five past six that morning to Shelbyville military air field.

"Thank you, airman" said Jack, not having being introduced to the co-pilot by name.

"Are we driving?" Sam asked the Airman, wondering if she would have to drive again.

"No Ma'am, you'll have a driver to your hotel, then he'll be picked up and you'll have the car for your own use throughout your stay." The co-pilot told them. "I have to go back to the flight deck, we're just about to land." And he walked away.

"Buckle up gang," Jack said to Jonas and Teal'c who had turned to face each other to play cards. Apparently Teal'c wasn't impressed that there wasn't a movie on this flight as there had been on the way to New York.

After the plane had landed, their luggage unloaded, and everything double checked to make sure that nothing had gone missing en route, the four of them got into the car, Sam Jonas and Teal'c in the back, Jack in the front next to the driver.

"Ok, so this is the plan, we get to the hotel, check in, and we ask for tourist information, anything kooky or odd, cos we're supposed to be interested in that. Sam, you'll ask for the street name on the back of the photographs, and hopefully the receptionist will know where we need. Just in case, we'll ask for a map of the town from the reception, so we know where we're going." Said Jack, laying out the first part of their day.

The objective was to get to the photo store, ask some questions when it was quiet, and take it from there after they'd found out all they could.

Reaching the hotel, Teal'c undid his legs from seemingly behind his ears. He had been very cramped on the flight and in the car once again, he wondered if any more people on this planet had the same problem, and why the car companies didn't accommodate tall people more efficiently. He had always thought, although there was no guarantee that it would happen in his lifetime, that after they had defeated all the Goa'uld he might remain on earth and have a life here, with his son and with his friends. Now the idea of making cars with more leg room was in his head, it was an idea he would have to work on. Either that, or go back to his home planet of Chulak and introduce cars there, only with enough leg room for the biggest man on the planet.

Checking into their rooms, Sam and Jack were once more next door to each other, and Teal'c and Jonas were down the hall. It wasn't as nice a hotel as the one had been the day before, but it was comfortable. The beds were bouncy, the pillows fluffed with chocolates on, which Jack soon ate, and the rooms were nicely decorated. They seemed homely. The towels in the bathrooms were very fluffy, the sinks crammed with free toiletries, and all the mod cons one might expect.

Sam was unpacking her things for the night when there was a knock on her door. Opening it she found Jack standing there.

"Did you eat your chocolate yet?" he asked, walking into the room past her.

"No, not yet." She said, wondering why he was asking.

"Oh good," he said, picking it up and eating it. "I'm hungry, I think we should go ask where this street is and then go and find somewhere for breakfast. What do you think?"

Before she had a chance to answer him, he had taken hold of her waist and pulled her into his arms and kissed her, making the most of the opportunity of the time they had alone together, and repaying the favour from the previous day.

Slightly taken aback at the suddenness of the kiss, and also more than somewhat bewildered by his sudden change from an all business attitude, Sam stood in front of Jack looking puzzled. "Um, yeah, I'll go find Teal'c and Jonas and see what they think." She walked out of the room, trying to figure out if the kiss had just happened or if she'd imagined it, leaving Jack inside.

As he stood by the bed looking confused as to why he hadn't made himself leave, Sam opened the door again. "You coming?" she asked.

Jack looked around the room for the wastepaper basket and threw the chocolate wrapper in it, as if scoring a point in a game of basketball, before walking out of the room after Sam to find Teal'c and Jonas.

At the reception desk, there were pamphlets and useful information. The group took one each between them, and studied them intensely for clues that might help them in their search for the Goa'uld and the photo store.

"Excuse me," said Sam to the receptionist on duty. "Do you know where this street is?" she showed her a piece of paper that she'd copied the address off the back of the photos from.

"Oh yes, madam, it's three blocks north from here, and a left turn. You're not too far."

"Thank you very much." Said Sam as she left the lobby of the hotel and the three men followed her out.

"You got it?" asked Jack.

"Yep, we're not far off, about three blocks."

"That is very well, Samantha Carter, I am finding the need to exercise my legs." Said Teal'c.

"You don't do well in planes do you?" asked Jonas, wondering how a big man like him would be able to cope on a coach if he had to.

"I find it most difficult, Jonas Quinn." Teal'c informed him.

"Are we gonna get some breakfast first?" Jack asked the rest of the group. "I'm hungry."

"As am I O'Neill" replied Teal'c, knowing that he could eat any time of the day. He had remembered Jack looking astonished during one mealtime, because of the amount of food Teal'c had put on his plate. However, Teal'c had always had a large appetite. He always put himself through rigorous physical training to keep himself in shape. As a Jaffa he had needed to be at his greatest strength for battle. And now, he needed to be in shape for the missions through the Stargate that they were sent on.

"Yeah, I could go for something to eat, too." Jonas told Jack. He had missed his 4am alarm call, and had got up too late to have breakfast. He had thought this was a good thing on the plane, just in case they hit turbulence and he had ended up being air sick. He hated embarrassing himself. Even though his people had been away from the planet Earth for more than a thousand years, it seemed that the characteristic of pride had still been passed on through the gene pool.

"Lets find somewhere to eat then, and go find this photo store and see if anything comes up." Sam said, her own stomach starting to rumble.

"Sounds good to me… I'm in the mood for pancakes I think." Said Jack, licking his lips at the thought of his favourite breakfast. Usually he had porridge or fruit loops, but as they were away on a mission, he thought he might treat himself. After all, if they weren't successful, he might never get to eat pancakes again.


	33. Chapter 33

**~Chapter 33~**

_Mulder at 'The Lone Gunmen's' office._

"Hey guys, what's happening?" asked Mulder as he walked past Langly into the office of the trio. The place was an organised mess, as usual, papers all over the place, files, folders and numerous bits of computer parts that they had taken apart and were yet to put back together lying all over the worktops. Their work area was a cross between a lab and an office.

"We're surfing the net to find out if anything has gone unexplained. You know, just the usual stuff, all in a days work." Langly told him, "Then after we're gonna see if we can find some new chat rooms for D&G. The old ones have got kinda boring, kinda lame." It was well known that the three men had a great, and completely unnatural obsession with the game, Dungeons and Dragons. Mulder would never quite see the attraction.

"So, Mulder, what can we do for you?" asked Byers, getting straight down to business as always. He was the kind of man any mother could have been proud of, if he'd decided to do any other job than his current chosen profession of chasing conspiracies and the unexplained.

"Well, I've had some photographs sent to me, and I've taken them to Joe, you guys know Joe, right?"

"Yeah, we know Joe" said Frohike, turning a deep shade of red, from the corner of the room, looking up from his slides, not bothering to say hello properly. Frohike was somewhat of a fan of Joe's. He had admired, and used some of, his programming in his own work. The one occasion when Frohike had met Joe he had been somewhat star struck, and his list of conversation topics that he had previously drawn up and memorised, in case he ever did have the opportunity to come face to face with a man he had so much respect for, had completely escaped him, and he was left standing in front of Joe looking like a bumbling idiot. Having been very embarrassed about the incident and subsequently blushed every time Joe's name was mentioned.

"Well, anyway," Mulder continued, ignoring Frohike's evident embarrassment, "He verified that they're real, and if anyone would know he would, right?"

"Yeah, he's the expert, dude" said Langly, sitting back down at his P.C. and typing in another address to go to, flicking his white blonde hair back behind his shoulders.

"Well, I brought them along with me for you guys to have a look and tell me what you think and if you're aware of anything that could cause what's in the photographs. Joe didn't have any theories as such…"

"You mean none you wanted to hear?" asked Byers, knowing that Joe would have thought of a logical explanation first, before jumping to the same conclusions as Mulder might have.

"Yeah, anyway… have a look and tell me what you think." Mulder pulled the photos out of his pocket and shared them round between the three men who had come to stand around the bench to view them. Langly picked two up and looked at them intensely. Frohike picked up one and took it to where his slides had been and looked through his large magnifying glass at them. Byers just stood by the bench, speechless by the sight of them.

"Mulder, this looks like a cult or something. How'd he make his eyes glow like that?" Langly asked, not really helping Mulder with his investigation.

"That's what I want to know. Scully's checking for medical conditions, calling up everyone she ever knew from med school to try and prove that this isn't proof of extra terrestrial life." Mulder told them.

"Typical of the lovely Scully," said Frohike, having had a crush on her since she first visited their office with Mulder and Byers had torn up one of her $20 bills. "She doesn't want to believe Mulder. I don't think you'll be able to force her."

"If this is real, and we find these people, and it's true, then she'll have no other choice to believe." Mulder said, suddenly realising that saying it out loud made it sound like this was the only reason he was investigating the photos. "Not that that's my only reason for investigating this, I of course want to find the truth. This could prove all my theories."

"Well, Mulder, to be honest, these people look definitely human." Byers said, always the voice of reason and logic. Mulder had always thought that under different circumstances Byers and Scully would have been great friends.

"I know, and that's the problem." Mulder said, with a dejected tone. "I can't convince Scully, or anyone else for that matter, that they're not human if they don't look not human, if you understand me." He realised his grammar was not the best he had ever presented in a sentence.

"Yeah, we know what you mean, Mulder," replied Byers, double checking in his head that he had understood Mulder correctly.

"Very odd, very, very odd." Langly said, to no-one in particular.

"What is?" asked Mulder, wondering if he had spotted something that Mulder hadn't already seen.

"The glowing in this guys eyes. He's the only one with the glowing, none of the others. But it's all the eyes, not just in the middle. How did he do that?" Langly asked.

"I don't know, it's what I'm hoping to find out," Mulder told them, wondering if they were all half asleep that morning. "I need to find evidence of where the photo might have been taken. Any ideas?"

"What about on the back of the photos? Is there an address?" Asked Byers, turning one of the pictures over to check.

"I've not looked, I was too interested on what was on the front, I never thought to look at the back." Replied Mulder, turning one of them over to check. Finding nothing, his heart fell. Mulder felt like every avenue was a dead end, that there was something working against him, that someone up there really didn't like him.

"Sometimes they just don't put addresses on the back of their photos. It's usually when they send them out to be developed elsewhere." Byers informed him.

"I know, but I'd hoped that there would have been a clue as to where I could have started this investigation off, you know? I don't know how else to determine where the pictures were taken. I'm at square one, and I'm likely to stay there for a very long time." Mulder said, disappointedly.

"Ah ha, but there are ways around that," said Frohike. "Don't worry, Mulder, we'll help you find out where your photographs were taken. We have ways and means you might never have thought of trying."

"Yeah? Like what?" asked Mulder, somewhat perplexed by the ingenious ways of getting information 'The Lone Gunmen' always seemed to come up with.

"Ah, well, we can run a weather analysis, to see if that comes up with anything." Frohike told him.

"But there's a problem guys, we don't know when this photo was taken, and even what country it was taken in," Mulder told them, with a dejected sigh.

"You're right," said Langly, "We'd better get to work then," as the trio busied themselves trying to help Mulder out.


	34. Chapter 34

**~Chapter 34~**

_SG1 sitting and having breakfast, in Shelbyville, Tennessee._

Sitting in a booth in the quietest corner of a diner in the centre of Shelbyville, Teal'c, Jonas, Sam and Jack eagerly awaited their breakfasts. Having already ordered, Jack decided to get down to business straight away so he could enjoy his pancakes.

"So, we find this place, and we ask some questions." He told the members of his team, as he fiddled around with the menu stand on the middle of the table.

"A wise idea, O'Neill," replied Teal'c, hoping that the waitress would hurry up with his meal. The big man liked his food and was hungry.

Looking across the table at Jack, Jonas asked, "So, we ask them if they know who brought in the photos, and if they don't know that, then what?"

"Then we ask if they know where the place is that's in the photo." Replied Jack, having already laid out a rough plan of action in his head. Looking at Sam, and seeing the funny look on her face, he asked her, "What's the matter?"

"I hate to be a killjoy, Jack, but what if they don't know anything? What if they don't have the answers we need?" She asked.

"Hey!" Jack said forcefully, "Let me be the cynic around here will you?"

"I'm just thinking of all the possibilities," she replied defensively, almost hurt that he didn't seem to be at least considering that this might all lead to a big dead end.

"Yeah, well, Sam, you think too much." He told her. "Did ya ever hear of a thing called faith? Just have a little will you?" He asked her, pushing the thought of having no leads to the back of his mind.

"Ok, I won't say anything else." She told him, holding her hands up defensively, almost sulking. She didn't like it when Jack was in one of his determined moods. They mostly were accompanied by the moods in which he wasn't open to discussion. Experience told her that she would be better off not disagreeing with him.

The group of four sat in an almost disturbing silence, each contemplating the possibilities of being faced with a dead end. Each of their faces exhibiting dismal expressions until their thoughts were interrupted by the waitress with their breakfasts.

Carrying two plates in each hand she skilfully put Jack's pancakes in front of him, giving him a dazzling smile. "Thanks," he said, with a nod of the head and a small smile. Sam noticed he didn't look at her for more than two seconds, which meant he must have his mind completely focused on their predicament, or he was never going to look at another woman again now that they were an item. She hoped it was the latter, not the former.

As Teal'c's plate was put in front of him, he bowed his head to the waitress and thanked her, immediately picking up his knife and fork and cutting up his waffles with maple syrup.

Over breakfast, there was a more comfortable silence, which Jonas had been glad of. Being the newest member of the group, he still was unsure of how long these silences could last. It made him uncomfortable and he had often resorted to fiddling with something to take his mind off the situation. He was developing somewhat of a nervous disposition and he wasn't happy about it. Jonas had opted for bagels and croissants for his breakfast. If they were going to be running around chasing Goa'uld all day, he didn't need to be eating anything heavy.

"So," Jack said, through a mouthful of pancakes, "Which way is the photo store from here?"

"I believe it is three blocks south of here, O'Neill," replied Teal'c.

"Ok, then," Jack said, finishing the last bite of his pancakes and leaving the money for the bill and a tip on the table, "Lets go."

As the four of them left the diner, they walked quietly towards the photo store.

Arriving outside, they stood looking at the displays full of photo albums in the window. Opening the door, Jack strode inside confidently, and walked up to the counter. There was not a customer in sight, Jack noticed as he took a quick look around.

"Hi there," said the man behind the desk, in a voice too cheerful for that time of the morning.

"Hi," replied Sam, reaching for the photographs out of her inside jacket pocket, as Jonas and Teal'c wandered off and started looking at the displays on the wall of all the different varieties of photo frames the store had to offer. "We were wondering if you could help us."

"Um, if I can, with what?" asked the man.

"We're from the Air Force," Jack told him, "We need to know where these photographs were taken. Do you remember who brought them in? Do they look familiar to you?" He asked, as Sam spread them out on the counter top before him.

"Well, sure they do, they're of my brother and his family." He told them with a smile. "How did you get them?" He asked, a puzzled look consuming his face as his brain processed the implications of the Air Force having a copy of his brother's holiday snaps.

"They were sent to us, we're not investigating your brother, we just need to know where they were taken. Do you know where this is?"

"Sure, they were from his last holiday, just a couple of months ago, they went to Richmond."

"As in Virginia, Richmond?" asked Jack.

"Yeah, they have friends over there, they went for a big birthday party, only with it being so far away, they ended up staying for a week and making a proper holiday out of it." He told them.

"Thanks, that's really helped us a lot. Any chance that we can get your brother's number to call and ask him exactly where this picture was taken?" Asked Jack, hopefully.

"Sure, just let me get a pen." Said the man, as he walked into the back of the store and out of sight.

"Wow, we sure got lucky," Sam said to Jack.

"Yeah, but I'm not complaining." Jack told her, sending up a silent 'Thank you' that they hadn't come across any obstacles so far. "Don't tempt fate." He told her, hoping that they weren't going to have problems from here on in.

"Ok, I won't," she told him, realising that the hard work was still to come, they had to get rid of this Goa'uld before it took over their planet.

As the man reappeared behind the counter, with a piece of paper and a pen, Sam and Jack turned their attention to what he was writing.

"There ya go," he told them, handing Jack the piece of paper. "His name is Michael."

"Thanks, thanks very much." Jack replied. "If I call this now, will he be in?"

"Should be, he works from home so you should be able to get hold of him."

"Bye then. And thank you again," Jack said, waving slightly and walking out of the door as he reached for his cell phone to call the number.

After a brief conversation with Michael, the team were off to his house to ask him for directions to where the photos had been taken.


	35. Chapter 35

**~Chapter 35~**

_Mulder walking back into his office, after visiting The Lone Gunmen_

"Hi Scully," Mulder said, as he opened the door to his office, finding her holding her head, looking at the computer in front of her.

"Hi Mulder," she replied, turning to look at him. "Did you find anything useful?"

"Nah, not really, a couple of theories, but no hard evidence yet." He told her, hoping she'd not beat him to it. "You?"

"No, nothing yet. I'm beginning to think this is a lost cause, Mulder." She told him, dejectedly.

"Come on Scully, let's go get some lunch," he suggested, picking up her bag for her.

"Sounds good to me." She replied, welcome of the break, her eyes had started to turn square from looking at the computer so much, searching through all the medical sites she knew of, emailing all her contacts from medical school who were still practicing and some who weren't.

As they walked down the corridor, towards the staff canteen, Mulder nudged Scully in the ribs. "Don't look now," he said quietly, "but here comes your admirer!"

"Oh no," groaned Scully, as she looked in the direction Mulder was nodding in and saw Agent Pendall. It was widely known that he had a crush on her, and that he turned into a gibbering blushing mess every time she spoke to him. She felt sorry for him really, but not sorry enough to put him out of his misery and go out on a date with him.

"Scully!" He shouted up the corridor, waving at her.

Scully's eyes rolled upward, and she lowered her head dejectedly, as if the will to live had been drained from the soles of her feet and she was looking down to see where it went.

"Hi Pendall," Mulder said, cheerfully, enjoying every moment of Scully's embarrassment. He found it funny that Pendall had a crush on her, because Mulder knew that Pendall didn't have a chance with Scully, but it didn't seem to stop him from trying.

"Hi Mulder," he replied almost dismissing him. "Hi Agent Scully," he said, turning his attention to her, almost falling at her feet.

"Hi Pendall," she replied, giving him a reluctant smile, "How are you today?"

"Ah, well, um, I'm ok, I guess," he stammered his words out as though he had two tongues in his mouth. "Um, where are you two off to?"

"We were just about to get some lunch, discuss our case," Scully replied, hoping that he'd get the hint that she was busy and couldn't talk to him right now.

"Anything interesting?" he asked.

Just as Mulder was about to reply, Scully beat him to it.

"Nah, just the usual stuff." She replied nudging Mulder in the ribs to stop him from saying anything.

"Oh, well, I'll walk with you, I need to see someone in there anyway." Pendall told them.

"Great!" Said Scully, with a false smile which Pendall didn't seem to notice, but Mulder was more than aware of. Mulder looked at her sympathetically, as Pendall walked slightly ahead of them, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "We'll just get a table for two."

Giving him a grateful look, she turned the corner of the corridor and waited as Pendall pressed the button for the elevator.

As they queued up for something to eat and drink, Mulder placed himself between Scully and Pendall, chatting away to Pendall, asking him how his work was, what he was working on at the moment. And Pendall who was somewhat of a nerd, so eagerly wanting to be thought of as cool by Mulder, gave him all the information and in turn asked about his own case. Mulder, lowering his voice to make it sound mysterious told Pendall about the photographs, and the possibilities that they had so far come up with.

Mulder was surprised when Pendall asked to see the photographs. He had thought that Pendall would have presumed Mulder was just kidding around, but at his request, Mulder pulled out the photograph envelope, and showed them to Pendall.

"Oh I know where this is." Pendall told him.

"You do?" Asked Scully, turning her attention away from the choice between the apple and orange juice on the refreshment stand.

"Yeah, we went there last year on holiday, they hold this carnival there every year, this is the same carnival. It's fun, loads of rides and attractions, stuff for kids and all of that." He told her, and picked up a cup to get some coffee, evidently oblivious to the bombshell he'd just dropped on Mulder and Scully, who up until then had no leads at all.

"Where is it?" Asked Scully.

"Oh, it's in Richmond, we stayed at this great hotel, wonderful food, great entertainment, they even had bingo." He told them, giggling to himself at the memories. "I won a hundred bucks one night."

"Richmond?" asked Mulder.

"Yeah, in Virginia." Pendall replied, picking up his tray of lunch and moving to the counter to pay for it.

Following quickly behind, Mulder put his arm around Pendall's shoulders. "Come sit with us, Pendall" he told him, giving Scully an apologetic look over his shoulder. Surely she'd understand that this could be a lead on the case, surely one lunch with him couldn't be that bad.

Rolling her eyes, tilting her head back, and letting out a huge sigh, Scully knew that this lunch break was suddenly going to seem a lot longer than it should.

Chatting away while she picked at her food, Mulder was getting directions and information out of Pendall about the location of the carnival, when it happened, what time it started, what attractions they had there, if they were always set up in the same place, how many times Pendall had been there. Mulder even asked how much Pendall had paid to play bingo.

Lapping up all the attention from Mulder, Pendall told him everything he knew, including the best places to eat in the area of the carnival, how far away from the town it was, where the traffic lights were, and even how many times he'd seen a traffic warden giving out parking tickets.

Listening intently, wishing all his cases were this easy to gather information about, Mulder looked across at Scully, who didn't seem to be listening, and felt a pang of guilt in his stomach. 'I'll make it up to her' he thought to himself. He made a mental note to buy her dinner some time soon, and carried on taking notes from Pendall.

Mulder didn't point out the men in the back of the photograph, and Pendall didn't seem to notice, if he did, he didn't say anything.

After lunch, Mulder went to see Skinner, and get permission to go to Richmond.

Little did Mulder know that the team of SG1 were on a military plane, and the race to find the truth was on.


	36. Chapter 36

**~Chapter 36~**

_SG1 on the front porch of Michael._

Sighing deeply and looking across to Sam, Jack rang the doorbell of the house he was standing in front of. Taking in the surroundings and hoping he'd followed the directions correctly, he noticed that the neighbourhood, while not being the classiest in the world, was nice enough. The houses weren't the biggest, but far were from being the smallest he'd ever seen. In a word it looked comfortable. He imagined that the people who lived on this street worked hard for their money, but could also afford a holiday every year.

Bringing Jack firmly back to reality, the door opened. A tall man stood before them, Michael Jack presumed. "Hi there, are you Michael?" he asked.

"Yeah, you the guy on the phone?" Michael replied.

"That's me!" Jack told him cheerfully.

"Come on in." Michael stood aside and motioned them to go into the hall. "Go on into the lounge."

"I'll come straight to the point," Jack told him, as he looked around the spacious, neat living room. "We're here to ask you a favour."

"Ok, what's all this about?" Asked Michael, somewhat confused by the appearance of four Air Force personnel on his doorstep. It wasn't every day that they called you up asking for help, he thought to himself.

Turning to face Michael, Teal'c spoke to him, explaining the situation. "We had some photographs brought to our attention. We need to know the location in which they were taken."

"Which photos? I take a lot."

Moving towards him, Sam took the photo envelope out of her jacket pocket. Passing them over, Michael undid the envelope and removed them from their protective wallet.

"Oh, yeah, I remember this… we went to see some friends a few months ago. Richmond, Virginia." He told them.

"We need directions to this place, from the airport. If you can remember," Jonas told him.

"Well, sure, no problem." Michael replied, fetching a piece of paper and a pencil from the cabinet behind Jack.

Directions in hand, they said thank you to Michael, and left, saying goodbye from his front gate, making sure it was shut firmly behind them.

"Wow, that was a lucky break, huh?" asked Jonas, turning to Sam. "I mean, what were the odds of that guy in the photo store being Michael's brother?"

"Very slim." She replied, the thought of how much work they could have had in front of them if they hadn't had such a good lead just occurring to her.

"Yeah, we did good, troops." Jack told them all, patting Teal'c on the shoulder, who in return gave him a quizzical look which almost frightened Jack. If he wasn't such good friends with Teal'c, he might have been in fear for his well being.

"Should we not call General Hammond and inform him of the progress we have made, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked Jack.

"Yes, yes we should." Jack told him, reaching for his cell phone.

"Looks like we won't need the hotel after all." Sam said. "We'll just have to walk back there, it's not too far, and then drive to the airport, assuming General Hammond can arrange a flight for us straight away."

"Or today at least," Jonas said, "If not, we'll just have to stay overnight here."

A small smile appeared on Sam's face.

"What's funny?" asked Jonas, who thought she was laughing at him.

"Nothing, I was just thinking that's all." She told him, hoping that he couldn't tell she really wouldn't mind staying the night. She felt the need to be around Jack more and more, it just didn't seem fair to her that their working relationship should interfere with their personal relationship.

"Well, campers, I hope you didn't unpack much. We're going straight to Virginia." Jack told Teal'c, Jonas and Sam.

"General Hammond got us a plane then?" Sam asked, knowing the answer was going to be yes, and wondering why she asked such a stupid question.

"Yeah, we've got to get back to the hotel, check out and drive back to the airport as soon as we can." Jack told them, looking at Sam with a disappointed look in his eyes. It reminded him of his service in the Gulf War, how for two weeks he'd hardly spent more than 12 hours in any one place, always being moved around for duty. However important that had seemed at the time, it didn't compare to the seriousness of the current situation that he and his team were facing, and he felt guilty for feeling bad about being moved around so much.

Arriving back at the hotel, the four of them went directly to their rooms and began collecting their things.

Sitting on the bed, Teal'c contemplated the next trip, and the task ahead of the team. They had fought against many Goa'uld before, even once on Earth, but never quite like this. As First Prime to Apophis he had seen, and done, many gruesome things. All of which he felt guilty for. He had joined the Tau'ri to repent for his wrongdoings, and to help them in the fight against the Goa'uld. And now, here was one on their own planet, walking around in public, which indicated a certain level of confidence. The Goa'uld, after all, were not stupid. A Goa'uld would not leave the safety of its base if it did not feel confident that it would neither be challenged, nor restricted. And to be so bold as to let its temper show by its glowing eyes, was something that worried Teal'c deeply. SG1 would have to pull all their tricks out of the hat to defeat this enemy.

As Sam finished packing the last of her things away, and making sure she'd got everything with her, there was a knock at her door. Walking across the room to open it, she knew it would be Jack standing on the other side.

Sure enough, he was there leaning against the door frame, nonchalantly. "Listen," he said, "I'm sorry about earlier."

"What do you mean?" she asked, puzzled.

"In the diner, I didn't mean to yell. Forgive me?" He asked her, a pleading look on his face, his brown eyes making her heart melt inside her chest.

"Of course." She replied, opening the door wider so he could walk in. He grabbed hold of her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. Pulling her into him, he held her close. "Promise me we're both coming out of this one." He said.

Suddenly she realised that he was worried there was a chance they were going to lose this fight. Tightening her grip around his neck and shoulders, she buried her head in his neck and spoke to him almost in a whisper as a tear started to form in her eye. "I promise, Jack. Hey, it's like you always say, 'we've faced worse'."

"I know." He said, not letting go of her, "It's just this time there's more on the line. It's not just Earth that's in danger, it's you. You and me."

"We'll be fine, Jack," she reassured him, not completely convinced herself, "We'll find a way to get out of this. We have the whole air force, what do they have? Now let's get to the airport."


	37. Chapter 37

**~Chapter 37~**

_Mulder and Scully on the way to Richmond._

"Mulder, why didn't you want to drive?" asked Scully, from behind the wheel.

Mulder, who was half sitting, half lying on the back seat, rubbed his eyes and replied, "I'm too tired, I didn't get much sleep last night, Scully, and it's getting late now. Better to avoid an accident."

"Yeah, I guess," she replied, her concentration elsewhere as she drove up to the back of a traffic jam, imagining that she didn't get all that much more sleep than Mulder had.

Due to the relative closeness of their destination to the office, Skinner had told Mulder, after reluctantly giving his permission for the case to continue to be investigated, that if they wanted to get there, the F.B.I. would grant them a hire car, but they could by no means take another flight on this case. Mulder knew that Skinner would have probably let them take a flight out to Richmond, if only to get the case over with quicker, but he had a budget to consider and his bosses would be on his back about spending. It was at times like these that Mulder didn't envy his superior in the slightest.

Scully hated travelling during the rush hour traffic. She had always found that the awkward hours of her job, the early starts and the late nights, had enabled her to avoid the congestion for the most part. Waiting for an hour looking at the rear end of the same car was not the way she liked to spend her time. The few times that she had been to Richmond, twice as a child and once as an adult, she hadn't liked it. Holding her hand up to her head, she touched what was now an appearing bruise on her temple from the bump in the car as Mulder had been driving recklessly.

"You ok, Scully?" Mulder asked her leaning forward to look at her face, distracting her thoughts.

"Yeah, my head just still hurts a bit." She replied.

Feeling a pang of guilt, Mulder apologised. "I'm sorry, Scully, I didn't mean it."

"Oh, I know. Forget about it, Mulder, I'll live. We'll be there soon anyway."

"We've got a great starting point anyway, Scully, so we should be able to get started pretty quickly" he told her, recalling what Pendall had told him earlier that day.

"Well, I think we'll just have to have a pretty quick start tomorrow, Mulder," Scully replied, "I'm much in need of some sleep, so I think we should find somewhere to stay first."

"I've got that recommended too, from your admirer," he told her, leaning his arms against the front seat and resting his head on his arms, looking across at her.

Glancing out of the corner of her eye, Scully could have sworn she saw Mulder batting his eyelashes at her in an attempt to wind her up about Pendall's crush on her. Focusing her eyes straight on the road ahead, in her best efforts to ignore his taunts, she took at deep breath to calm down and to keep herself from elbowing him in the ribs. "What's this recommendation then?" She asked, and following Mulder's directions they arrived at a nice little motel within an hour and a half.

The next morning, as Scully made her way round to Mulder's room, she hoped that this case was going to be one of those which turned out to be a hoax, and that she could go home for the weekend. Touching the end of her hair, she realised she needed a trim.

Mulder watched Scully walk past his window, and walked over to the door to open it for her just as she was about to knock. "Morning, Scully." He said, cheerfully.

"Good morning, Mulder," she replied, walking past him and taking in the mass of papers that had appeared on his bed. "If the room was like that when you got here, Mulder, you can complain and get the F.B.I. its money back." She said, with a wry smile.

"Very funny, Scully" he replied, walking past her, putting his head closer to her ear as he spoke. "I've been working on what we've got so far."

"And what exactly is that?" she asked, genuinely wanting to know, as she didn't think they had anything significant yet.

"Well," he started, "There's everything Pendall gave us, times, dates, prices of bingo…" he trailed off to see if she was listening as she picked up his papers and raised her eyebrow cynically.

"How much is the bingo?" she asked, thinking to herself that it probably would be a lot better use of her time than this investigation.

"Never mind, we've got plenty of things to go on, so all we have to do is some digging and see what we can find."

"I hope you brought your spade then, Mulder."

"I thought we'd start at the local police station, first of all. See if they know anything about any cults in the area. There are probably a few, every town has at least one, right?"

"Yeah, seems there are people trying to make a buck everywhere." Scully replied.

"I agree, most cult's are just there to make as much money as they can from innocent people, but this one might be different. This group could be the first ever discovered alien cult, right here on Earth."

"Well, I'll tell you what Mulder, I'll bet you a dinner you're wrong." Scully wagered as she found her eyes rolling towards the ceiling of their own accord.

"I'll hold you to that when I'm right, Scully. And don't think I'll be a cheap date either." He warned her, as he gathered the papers from his bed and put them into his briefcase. Opening the door for her, they went to eat breakfast, Mulder running his plan of action past Scully as they walked down to the dining room.

After breakfast the two agents made their way to the local police station. Walking into the entrance, Mulder noticed how old fashioned it seemed, for such a big town. With cream coloured walls, wooden partitions with swinging doors, the oldest filing cabinets Mulder had ever seen and high set windows without bars, Mulder wondered when the last time they had a criminal inside the building. He was half expecting a detective to walk around the corner in a 1950s suit and a matching brown hat. The policewoman behind the counter looked up and greeted them.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked, cheerfully.

As Scully explained who they were and what information they were hoping to acquire, Mulder looked down the hall to where he assumed the chief's office was.

"Let me just show you to an interview room where you can wait, while I get a detective to help you." Said the policewoman, moving from behind the counter and motioning them to follow her down the hall.

Leaving Mulder and Scully to wait in the interview room, the policewoman shut the door behind her as she went to find a detective.

"Well, Scully, we might have some help with this case."

"Yeah, the more help we have, the sooner we can go home." She replied, touching the end of her hair again and contemplating a cut.


	38. Chapter 38

**~Chapter 38~**

_SG1 in Richmond._

Since their flight had taken so long, Jack decided it would be a better idea to get their stuff stored in a hotel first, before checking out the surroundings, and looking for Goa'uld. Teal'c had been especially grumpy on the flight, asking how long the journey was going to take, and whether it was actually any quicker on the Air Force plane than it would have been on a normal commercial passenger plane. Or maybe, Jack thought it might be just because the Air Force didn't show movies on its flights.

Shaking the thought from his head, he realised now was not the time for jokes. Jack knew full well that the seriousness of the problem was the reason Teal'c, and everyone else for that matter, were not in lighter spirits. Himself included. He had not got the first idea of what they were going to do, if they encountered more than 30 Jaffa. They had only the basic zat's with them, and the usual array of Earth weapons. All would be useless against more sophisticated Goa'uld technology. Jack could only hope and pray that the recent modifications to Goa'uld weapons could not have possibly reached the hands of the Goa'uld they were after. If they had that advantage, they might stand a chance.

Checking into their third hotel in as many days, Jack and Sam were sitting in his room, planning a method of finding and neutralising the Goa'uld. There was a knock on the door, and when Jack answered it, Jonas was standing on the other side.

"Teal'c not with you?" Jack asked.

"No, he's having his Kel'nor'reem." Jonas replied, referring to Teal'c's meditation ritual that he had to perform on a regular basis to aid in the repairing and continued level of his immune system. It gave his body a chance to rest, whilst the symbiote inside him took care of anything wrong.

"Ah, right." Jack said, nodding his head. "We're just making a plan of action. Any ideas you'd care to throw in?"

"Um, well, we could always start with local authorities, check the libraries for old newspaper reports." Jonas said, thinking off the top of his head.

"Yeah, we could do that." Jack said, silently assigning himself to the authorities route rather than have to trail through microfilm. "Which do you wanna do?" he asked Jonas.

"I don't mind."

"Sam, what do you want to do?" Jack asked, hoping she'd say the authorities option.

"I think I'd be better looking through the microfilm with Jonas." She replied, her logical reasoning prevailing. She knew that she and Jonas were probably better at scanning than Teal'c and Jack.

"Um, ok," Jack said, slowly wondering if it was something he'd said. "You two take the library then, and Teal'c and I will go to see the police. Now lets go and have dinner, we can start first thing in the morning."

"You know," said Sam as she slid into bed, next to Jack, "I don't know why we keep booking 4 rooms for all of us. It seems such a waste of money if I'm never going to use mine."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," replied Jack as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and drew her into his chest, burying his face in her hair. "You think we should just get your room cancelled in the morning? And just tell them to charge us the same for just this one room? Then it won't show up on the invoice."

"We'd have to have a discrete word with the receptionist." Sam said, running the scenario through her mind. "And with Teal'c and Jonas as well."

"Yeah. But they'll be cool with it. I'm sure they already know." Jack said, wondering how they couldn't possibly know.

"Yeah, they probably do, so we should probably make the most of it," Sam replied, as she pulled the covers over her and Jack and closed her eyes.

Next morning, at breakfast, Jack told Teal'c what had been decided the previous night. Knowing that Teal'c would have no problem going to the police station with him, Jack wasn't worried about any objections.

"Very well, O'Neill." Agreed Teal'c.

"We'll all ask for directions at the reception desk before we set off, and we'll meet back here at twelve for an update and then we'll go from there." Jack said, as they got up to leave the table.

Walking towards the library was a relief for both Sam and Jonas, who had both grown tired of being transported about by planes and cars over the past few days. It was nice to have some fresh air, and time to reflect on what was going on.

"So, what are we looking for then?" asked Jonas, feeling the need for more specific details to look out for.

"Any references to cults in the area both recently and in the past five years or so." She replied, thinking that would be a good enough outline to start off with. If nothing turned up from that, then they would just have to widen their search.

"Right." Said Jonas, wondering if they were going to get through five years worth of microfilm between just two of them in less than three hours. "So, what's going on with you and Colonel O'Neill?"

Sam almost fell over. "What?" she asked, taken aback by the abruptness of his question. Although she felt like it had been more of a statement.

"You and the Colonel. C'mon Sam, it's obvious something is going on. You two dating or something?"

For the first time in Sam's life she felt speechless. "Um…" she stammered, as she felt her face turning bright red.

"I'll take that as a yes then, shall I?" Jonas asked.

"Alright," she said, grabbing hold of his arm and turning him to face her. "You probably know that Jack and I have always been close, and there's always been something there. But it's only recently that anything's happened, and you _can't_ tell anyone about it."

"No, of course not." Jonas replied. "By the way…" he paused, making Sam worry, "I'm really happy for you both. Now let's go and find us some Goa'uld."

Smiling, Sam walked into the library vowing to concentrate on the task in hand and to try and not think of Jack.

The walk to the police station was a long and quiet one. Jack had often felt the silences which accompanied most of his work with Teal'c had been reassuring, that the big man only spoke when there was something to say. It was difficult to start a conversation with him though. "Teal'c, there's something I have to ask you." Said Jack, hoping to broach the subject of him and Sam and their rooms.

"You wish to know if I have noticed anything between you and Major Carter." Teal'c told him, matter-of-factly.

"Yeah… how did you know?" Asked Jack, bewildered.

"I have noticed for a while. Both Jonas Quinn and I are happy for you, O'Neill."

"Good." Said, Jack. "Thanks." And just as they rounded the corner to the police station, there before them were Mulder and Scully, coming out of the building with their arms full of papers.


	39. Chapter 39

**~Chapter 39~**

_Mulder and Scully in waiting room in police station._

"You notice something, Mulder?" asked Scully as she looked around the tiny interview room, taking in her surroundings.

"What's that?"

"There are no 'Most Wanted' posters in here." She said, looking at the 'Just Say NO!' and neighbourhood watch posters on the walls.

"Maybe they got them all?" Mulder asked.

"Yeah, or maybe they're just somewhere else. There are no tapes either." She pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Mulder asked, confused.

"I mean, no tapes. No tape recorders. How do they tape their interviews?"

"Maybe they got a portable." Mulder suggested, only half interested in what Scully was saying. He was hoping that a detective would walk in and that they could get down to business straight away. The sooner he could find a starting point, the sooner he'd get to the truth about the photographs. Touching his jacket where his inside pocket was, he double checked that he still had them. He was wondering whether to just show the police the photographs just to see if they had any theories, or knew anything, about what was in them. Although, he thought to himself, it might be better just to say they were investigating cults in the area and keep the information they had on a need-to-know basis for the time being.

"Hi there!" Said a voice from behind the opening door, disrupting Mulder's thoughts. Through the glass panel Mulder could see the outline of a rather well-built man, roughly just under six foot tall. As he moved into the room, Mulder saw that he had short brown curly hair, and was dressed in brown trousers with a fawn shirt and matching brown tie and shoes.

"Hi," replied Scully, showing her identity badge and walking over to the detective and offering her hand to shake. "I'm Special Agent Dana Scully, with the F.B.I. and this is my partner, Fox Mulder."

"Well, it's nice to meet you ma'am. I'm Detective Brown." He told them as he shook hands with first Scully then Mulder. "How can I be helping the F.B.I?"

"We were hoping you might be able to provide us with some information for a case we're working on." Scully told him.

"What information would that be?" Detective Brown asked.

"We're investigating cults." Mulder interjected before Scully could show him up and tell Detective Brown that Mulder was chasing aliens.

"Cults?" Detective Brown said, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Yes. Have you had any reports about any young kids, teenagers etc. getting involved with cults in the area?"

"Well, we've had plenty of scams going on, you know the kind, middle aged men convinced there's aliens or the devil around, telling young kids just in high school that if they want a better life they should bring all their money and give it to him. They stay around for a few weeks preaching a better life without a government, then they disappear with all their money. What kind of time frame were you looking at?" Detective Brown asked, shaking his head as he remembered some of the recent scams which local teenagers had fallen for.

"I'm not sure," said Mulder. "Have there been many of these cases in the past year?"

"There's been a few." Detective Brown replied.

"Is there any chance we could have a look at some of your files?" Asked Mulder, expecting the answer to be 'No'.

"I'll ask the Lieutenant, see what he says. If you'll excuse me for a minute."

As he left the room, Scully looked at Mulder. "You're not going to tell him that you're here looking for aliens then?" She asked.

"I thought it would be better on a need-to-know basis." He replied, knowing she wouldn't fall for his excuse.

"Mulder, why don't you just admit that you know you could be wrong in the hugest way about this, and you don't wanna look stupid."

"Well, maybe that too, but mostly it's just cos there's no need for him to know about this. We'll let the local authorities know if there's any trouble, but this is an F.B.I. case, and we have jurisdiction here."

Scully knew she couldn't argue with that. The case was the F.B.I.'s responsibility, jurisdiction and business, whether she wanted to be on the case or not. "Do you think we'll be able to get any information about these past cases off them?" she asked Mulder.

"I don't know, Scully, maybe. If we get lucky we'll have something to research through, if not, we'll just have to rely on our skills as agents and search for information ourselves. It'll be longer, but we'll reach the same point."

"Well, I vote for the shorter option." Said Scully, not wanting to spend any more time in Richmond than she had to.

"Yeah, I thought you might," Mulder told her, knowing that she was getting bored of field work. Every agent occasionally got sick of never being in the office. The post tray seemed to take on a life of it's own, being so full of memo's and notices, and the office gossip never got round properly because everyone was out working.

Mulder had got sick of being in the field once, for about a month before Scully joined him on The X Files, he had tried to sort his office out but just created more of a mess. Scully had been amazed she had even been able to move around his office during her first few days there, but Mulder's system was an organised one albeit messy.

The door opened and Detective Brown walked back in. "Well folks, I've had a word with the Lieutenant and he says that you're welcome to go through what we have. Apparently he thinks that if we help you out on what you need to know, it might do this precinct a favour. According to him, the last time the F.B.I. were down here, we weren't exactly as co-operative with them as we could have been."

"We'll be sure to mention how helpful you've been in our reports then, Detective Brown." Mulder told him.

"Thank you." Replied the detective, "If you'd like to follow me, I'll point you in the right direction for some of our files."

As the three of them walked down the hall, Scully asked if they would be able to take any of the files away with them, to go through.

"No, I'm afraid you can't remove the files from the premises, but I can point you in the direction of the photocopier, ma'am."

"Thank you," she replied, "That will be very helpful."

"Yeah," agreed Mulder, "We'll be able to get just what we want then.

After spending two hours going through dozens of large folders, the two F.B.I. agents left the police station with their arms full of photocopies, ready to spend the evening going through the cases looking for something to help them reveal the truth behind the man in the photograph with glowing eyes.


	40. Chapter 40

**~Chapter 40~**

_Jack and Teal'c in the street._

"O'Neill!" Teal'c said with an urgent tone.

Looking up and seeing Mulder and Scully walk out of the police station with armfuls of papers was discouraging. Quickly Teal'c and Jack moved back around the corner and looked at a shop window.

"Damn, they had the same idea we did." Jack said.

"How did they know to look in Richmond, Virginia?" asked Teal'c, puzzled.

"I don't know." Jack said, with an impatient tone. "They must have been further ahead than we thought they were."

"It would appear so" Teal'c said, raising his eyebrow to show his shock.

Pulling out his cell phone, he peered round the corner as he dialled Sam's number. Watching the two agents getting into a car and drive off, he and Teal'c walked towards the precinct while he waited for her to answer.

"Hello?" Sam said in a whisper on the other end of the phone.

"Hi, Sam, it's Jack. You'll never guess what we've just seen! Here's a clue…" he said, sarcastically, "They're F.B.I. agents, and they're called Mulder and Scully!"

"What?!" she whispered as loudly as she could without disturbing the other people in the library and drawing attention to herself.

"Yeah, they're here, they just walked out of the police station, with armfuls of papers. I hope you and Jonas can search quick, we need to get whatever we can, A.S.A.P."

"We'll get on it. But Jack, on the upside, they can't know exactly what they're looking for…" she told him, knowing that although Mulder and Scully were now a problem, they still had an advantage.

"Yeah, let's just hope not." Jack replied. "We'll see you at twelve, and just be on the lookout. If they have the same idea as us, the library might just very well be their next stop."

"Ok, we'll be careful. See you at twelve." She replied and she put the phone down to tell Jonas the latest developments.

"What shall we do now, O'Neill?" asked Teal'c wondering if it might not look too strange if two different groups of people went to the police station looking for the same information.

"We'll just have to play it by ear, I guess." Said Jack, more than slightly annoyed that the F.B.I. had not only found the place where the photographs had been taken, but were also using up the same resources that he had wanted to use. Feeling the urge to hit Mulder across the face, and hard, Jack strode off quickly down to the entrance of the precinct.

"You are displeased, O'Neill." Teal'c said, making Jack unsure whether he was asking a question or just making an observation.

"You can say that again, Teal'c. C'mon, let's go and ask the nice policemen if they'll help us as well as the F.B.I."

Striding up the stairs outside the front of the building, Jack pushed the door aside and walking straight up the helpdesk he rang the bell. There was nobody about, so Jack hit the top of the bell again. A policewoman appeared from behind a door that Jack saw led down a corridor.

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" she asked, politely.

"Hi, we're with the Air Force, we were hoping you'd be able to help us with some information we're looking for." Jack told her.

"Sure, I'll try. What are you looking for?"

"We're looking for a guy." Jack began, trying not to sound suspicious. "He might be presenting himself as a cult leader."

"You're looking for a cult? Do you wanna join it?" asked the policewoman.

"No, we're just looking for anyone suspicious in the area. We need to really find this one person, but there's classified stuff I can't tell you. Is there any way we could look at a few of your case files to see if it's the guy we're after?" Jack asked, knowing that the answer would probably be 'No.'

"You know, you're the second lot of people we've had in here today, asking about cults. You all working together or something?" she asked him, getting a suspicious feeling.

"We are looking for the same man, however we are doing so for a different reason." Teal'c said, making the policewoman jump.

"Well, you know, they just left with a bunch of stuff, I don't think it will have been put back yet. I'll double check it's ok for you folks to look at it, and then I'll show you through."

"Thank you, thank you very much." Jack said, hitting the top of the counter and smiling his best 'Thank you' smile at the woman and walking to the seated area by the door to sit down.

Five minutes later, the woman came back through the doors carrying three boxes. Teal'c took two of the boxes off her, and Jack took the other one, as she told them to follow her. She showed them into a side room, and told them to have a look at whatever they wanted and she'd get it copied for them. Teal'c and Jack started to work through the three boxes, hoping that they'd be able to get a description of the kind of resistance the Goa'uld had put up in the past.

"They're what?!" asked Jonas, not believing his ears.

"They're here." Replied Sam, knowing that it was a shock to hear that Mulder and Scully were not only in the same city, but had beat them to one of their potential sources of information.

"Wow, so we'd better get to work then." Jonas said, turning to the machine in front of him.

"Yeah, I'll do half, you do half." Sam replied, as she too turned to the machine and started to look for anything relevant.

An hour and a half later, with cramps in his hand from writing so much down, Jonas said, "Well, I think I got everything out of this half I'm going to get."

"That was quick." Sam replied, only three quarters of the way through her pile. "What have you got?"

"Well, I've got one or two possibilities, a few that just sound like money making merchants, and one that seems to be a practical joke."

"What are the possibilities?" she asked, having come up with next to nothing with what she had seen so far.

"There have been reports in two newspapers, during the last six months, detailing the disappearance of two teenage boys. One left a note saying he was going to join people who could offer him more and the other one just ran away in the middle of the night having been seen spending time with 'an odd bunch of men' and claiming that he would serve this man as his God."

"Anything else?" Sam asked, praying for an address.

"It mentions previous disappearances of the same nature, from six months before this report and up to five years before that. It's been going on for a while." Jonas told her.

"Any address? Place of reference to start with?" she asked, hoping they would at least get that much before the F.B.I. agents did.

"No, but we can cross reference these reports with anything Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c find."

"Yeah, lets just hope Jack can come up with something on his end." She said.


	41. Chapter 41

**~Chapter 41~**

_Mulder and Scully in Mulder's motel room._

Opening the door to his room, Mulder found, was a tricky business when trying to balance piles of papers between one arm and his chin and finding the lock with the key in the other hand. Scully's arms were also full and for the first time since they left the police station, Mulder realised the full extent of the task ahead of them.

"Have you opened that door yet, Mulder?" Scully asked impatiently, her arms going numb from holding the large weight of the papers.

"Almost there, I just can't see properly" Mulder replied, fiddling around to try and find the keyhole. If only the F.B.I. had been willing to put its agents in better accommodation he could have simply had a swipe card to open the door with.

Finally getting the door open, Mulder burst into the room, dropping half of his mound of paper all over the floor, and the other half on the bed. "Damn!"

"Never mind, Mulder, we didn't have much in order anyway." Scully told him, knowing that most of the information they had photocopied was going to be irrelevant anyway. Scully walked over to the little bedside table and put her mound of papers down as carefully as she could, resting her hand on the top to make sure they didn't fall off. Sitting down on the bed with a heavy sigh, she shook her head. "How are we going to get through this today?"

"Well, you take half, and I'll take half," Mulder suggested.

"And what exactly are we looking for? I mean, we've narrowed it down to the past year, but is there anything you're specifically looking for?"

"Yeah, descriptions, any physical characteristics which stand out." Mulder replied.

"You mean like glowing eyes?" Scully asked, wondering how the police would have worded that.

"Something like that." Mulder said, under his breath as they began to sort through the seemingly rainforest worth of paper before them.

Three hours and two pizza's later, the two of them had made three piles. The pile for definitely not a possibility, the pile for maybe a possibility and the pile that seemed most likely to lead them somewhere.

"Mulder, are you sure you haven't just put all your papers on this pile?" Scully asked, convinced that there couldn't possibly be as many possibilities as Mulder seemed to think.

"Yeah, they all seem like they could be plausible." Mulder told her. "They all seem to have grounds for investigation, and there are huge holes in some of the investigations. People they didn't interview, evidence missing…" he trailed off wondering how long he'd last in his job if he handed in reports like that to Skinner.

"They all mention glowing eyes and bad dress sense?" she asked, joking with him.

"No, not all of them mention the glowing eyes. But most of them say something about bad fashion taste." He replied, not willing to get into another debate about life from another planet with Scully when they had so much to go through. This was the part of the job that he didn't like all that much. Mulder usually preferred to be out, investigating and trying to do something to prove that he was right about not being alone in the universe. Paperwork and reports were not his favourite part of the F.B.I.

Picking up the first of the pile of definite maybes, Scully flicked through the pages. "Ok," she said, scanning the words in front of her eyes. "One Michael Green, aged 23 when he disappeared. That was… two years ago. Not been seen since. No previous criminal record, friends and family describe him as friendly, outgoing, determined and focused on his goals."

"Does it say what his goals were?" asked Mulder.

"Um," Scully paused as she turned the report over to look at the back of the sheet, "He was a keen weightlifter, on the college wrestling team, he was at college on a wrestling scholarship, but he was majoring in history. Family said that the few weeks before his disappearance he had become more preoccupied, and had spent a lot more time out of the house and away from them and his studies."

"No clues as to where he was spending his time?" Mulder asked, not sure if this was a missing person's case or just a case of Michael Green getting a girlfriend.

"No, the family didn't know. It says here they tried to ask if he had a new hobby or a girlfriend but apparently he just said 'no' and became angry and agitated so they stopped asking. It says that all his money went from his savings account. Maybe he just ran off, Mulder."

"Did he take any clothes with him?" Mulder asked.

Looking at the report, Scully replied, "No, it says that only a few of his things were missing, and he only had one of his pairs of shoes with him."

"He didn't run off, Scully. He was going somewhere where he didn't need clothes."

"But they have no idea where he went to. What are we gonna do with Mr Michael Green's report?" Scully sighed, shaking her head wondering how they were going to possibly progress when there were no clues.

"Put that on the 'investigate' pile, and we'll see if there is any connection between that one and any of the others." Mulder told her, grasping at straws himself.

"Ok then, who's next?" Scully nodded in the direction of the report Mulder had picked up.

"Brad Morris. Aged 22 when he disappeared just over a year ago. Friends and family say he was never the outgoing type, was always more concerned with his martial arts."

"Martial arts?" asked Scully. "Which variety?"

"A lot by the looks of things. It says here he was accomplished in Karate, Judo, Jujitsu and a few others that I can't pronounce."

"Well, he should go on the pile as well then." Scully said. "That's two we've looked at, and they were both into physical sports. Does it say anything about his bank accounts?"

"It says what little savings he did have were cleared out and closed. It doesn't say if the bank asked for a reason."

"Were they at the same bank, Mulder?" asked Scully, picking up Michael Greens' report.

"Um, Brad was at The Bank of America." Mulder read out.

"No, Michael was at a local bank, one based here in Virginia."

"Ok, well, that's not obviously a factor then," Mulder said, "I think we've got our work cut out for us going through these papers this afternoon, Scully."

"Yes, Mulder, _'we' _do, but at least there's something to go on now."

"The physical sport thing." Mulder agreed, knowing that it wasn't a great start, but it was better than nothing.

"Yeah. It's a start. We'll just have to work really hard I guess." Scully replied.

"I'll order dinner." Mulder said, picking up the leaflet for the take-out pizza place they'd used for lunch. "Think we get a discount for ordering twice in the same day?" he joked.


	42. Chapter 42

**~Chapter 42~**

_11.30am at SG1's hotel._

Sitting in the hotel's reception area, Sam and Jonas had their eyes fixated on the door waiting for Jack and Teal'c to return from the police station. With her elbows resting on her knees, and her hands in front of her face, Sam rested her chin on her thumbs.

"You worried?" asked Jonas, seeing the look of concern on her face.

"Not worried, I just wish Jack and Teal'c would hurry up." She told him, trying to stop her mind from racing about what they had seen on the microfilms.

"Do you miss him?" asked Jonas.

"Yeah. I guess I do."

"I remember a few years ago, there was a girl I used to date, we were really close, and I missed her every time she wasn't right next to me, too." Jonas said.

"What happened?" asked Sam, wondering why she'd never heard Jonas mention anything about a girlfriend before.

"There was a car accident, she got knocked down and killed." He told her solemnly.

"Oh my God, Jonas, I'm so sorry. I never knew. Why didn't you tell us?" Sam asked, moving towards him to rest her hand on his arm to try and offer some comfort.

"It was a long time ago, but seeing how you miss the Colonel just brings it to mind. I understand how you don't wanna be away from him, especially in our job. You never know when will be the last time we all see each other."

"Yeah, it's tough, but the job wasn't designed for that. We're not supposed to be anything more than colleagues. We're not supposed to have a relationship, it's against the rules for a reason. Personal feelings get in the way during war time." Sam told him.

"Isn't there any way you two can get around it?" Jonas asked, wondering why in this day and age the air force wasn't a little more understanding about situations such as Sam and Jack's.

"Jack already thought of retiring, again." Sam told him, "But I couldn't ask him to do that, not for me. We'll just have to put up with it for the time being."

"And he wouldn't ask you either?" said Jonas casually, without realising what he had said.

"No…" Sam replied slowly as her mind began to race and formulate an idea, "I guess he wouldn't."

"Hello campers!" Jack said as he and Teal'c walked up to Jonas and Sam in the hotel reception.

"Hi Jack." Replied Sam, getting up to stand next to him.

"Hey," he replied, kissing her lightly and draping his arm across her shoulders, "You get anything useful at the library?"

Slightly shocked by this open display of affection, and quickly concluding that Jack must have had a discussion with Teal'c, Sam shook her head quickly trying to focus. "Um, yeah, we got something very informative. But I think it's best discussed somewhere else but here." She told him, looking around at the open plan area, which was lit up by the glass doors and windows at the front of the building.

"Did you get anything?" Jonas asked Jack, hoping that the microfilm reports weren't all they had to go on.

"Indeed, Jonas Quinn. We have obtained some very useful information." Teal'c said, quite pleased that he and Jack had managed to single out a short list of possibilities in comparison with the stacks of papers that Mulder and Scully had left the precinct with.

"Well, let's get started going through it then, shall we?" Jack asked as he nodded in the direction of the elevator.

Gathered in Jack's room, Sam and Jonas took a look at the police reports whilst Jack and Teal'c studied the photocopies of the microfilms that Jonas and Sam had thought relevant.

"These look good, a few extra bits that aren't in the police reports" Jack said, to no-one in particular.

"Indeed." Replied Teal'c, "Although we do not know if these facts are corroborated or not."

"They mostly seem to tally though," said Jonas scanning the police report in front of him quickly, "So all we need to do now, is go through them all and find the most likely possibilities."

"That's the plan," Jack told him.

Several hours later SG1 had gone through all the papers before them.

"Well, that about does it then," Jonas said, throwing a pencil down onto the bed in front of him.

"I think we got our main suspect." Sam said standing up and stretching her back, now cramped from bending over for so long.

"It is most certainly a likely starting point." Agreed Teal'c, who was standing on the opposite side of the bed, with his hands behind his back.

"Let's go and see what we can see then" Jack said as he picked up one of the bags full of equipment they had brought with them.

"We need a map as well," Jonas said.

"We'll see if we can get one at a book store or something." Jack replied, knowing that it would be helpful to have a map of the area. The grounds they were going to be looking at were both quite large and far away, and according to the police reports, very difficult to get onto.

Leaving behind their research and reports on Amun, the Goa'uld they were now sure they were chasing, the four of them left the hotel room, with their weapons under their coats. Getting into their hired vehicle Jack drove them into the town. While Jonas went into the book store to ask for a map, Jack went over the plan for that evening.

"Ok, so we're just having a look, nothing fancy, we're just gonna feel him out. See what's going on in there and determine if we can get a team in there tomorrow. If there's an entry or exit point I want it found. I'll call Hammond when we get back to the hotel. If we can determine exactly what kind of threat Amun poses, we can have the necessary people and equipment out here by tomorrow."

"A wise idea, O'Neill," Teal'c replied.

"We'll have to play it very carefully with Amun himself, we don't want him getting away, or changing hosts." Sam said. "From the way those newspaper reports detailed the methods he used to get people to follow him, and the police reports about the mess he made of those who refused, we're going to have to look out. Watch our sixes."

"Yeah, this is a special kind of monster we've got here." Jack said, solemnly. "We plan first, move later." He took a deep breath and tried to brace himself for what might be lying in wait for them when they got up to the encampment Amun was using.

"I got a map," Jonas told Jack as he got back into the car and passed it to Sam in the front seat. "As detailed as they had."

"Looks good," she told Jack, opening it up. "It has the encampment on it, and the surrounding area in as much detail as there probably is up there."

"I just hope there's a lot of cover up there, we'll need a few trees to keep from being seen while we're taking a look around." Jack told her, wondering how they were going to avoid being spotted by a security force similar to a small country.


	43. Chapter 43

**~Chapter 43~**

_Mulder and Scully, Mulder's motel room in the evening._

Looking across at the scattered pizza boxes on the floor, Scully bemused at the joys of the lifestyle of the F.B.I agent. "Mulder, you really are a slob aren't you?" she asked with a smile.

"I've just never got out of my student habits, Scully." He replied absent mindedly as he looked through the papers they had narrowed their search down to.

"Quite a list, huh?" Scully asked, nodding in the direction of the papers they still had left after they had gone through the huge piles they'd taken from the police station.

"Yeah. This is going to take longer than I thought." Mulder said, rubbing his eyes suddenly realising how tired he was and wishing he'd put his glasses on before he started working through the reports.

"Ok," said Scully, sitting beside him on the floor, "What common factors are there?"

"Whoever is in charge of this cult, looks to be building some kind of army," Mulder said. "All the young guys who've disappeared have been strong, seriously into sports or physical exercise."

"And all the women who've gone missing have been even younger and have seemed really keen on having kids." Scully finished his sentence for him, growing more worried by the second.

Not only were these people being led into a cult, they were by the sounds of things, being led into a cult that was going to carry on through generations. Both Mulder and Scully had heard horror stories of young men and women being forced to have children in order to preserve the cult leader's beliefs, but up till now neither one of them had ever come across one.


End file.
